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2>awn*ZCbouGbt 


ON  THE  RECONCILIATION 


A  VOLUME  OF  PANTHEISTIC  IMPRESSIONS 
AND  GLIMPSES  OF  LARGER  RELIGION 


J.  WM.  LLOYD 


'One  God,  one  law,  one  element: 

And  one  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves.*' 

TENNYSON,  "In  Memoriam. 


MAUGUS    PRESS 
WELLESLEY    HILLS,    MASS 


Copyrighted  1900,  by 
J.  W,  LLOYD 


^his  is  a.  hook,  0  Rea.der,  thai  you  ivitl  not  agree 
^Uh,  hut  if  you  read  it  you  'will  never  forget  it,  and 
ten  years  from  notu  it  %itt  seem  truer  to  you  than 
to-day. 


Contained  Iberetn, 


PAGE 


Eht  Terces v 

The  Dawning  of  the  Thought J 

The  DaMrn-Thought 4 

There  is  but  One 4 

The  Center  and  the  Two  Aspects  of  the  Divine   ....  6 

The  Consciousness  of  Individuality 7 

The  Reconciliation 9 

The  Cheer  of  the  Dawn-Thought JO 

Of  Solidarity JJ 

Of  Prophecy 15 

Fate  and  Free  WiU -  .    .  15 

The  Reason  of  Evil J6 

Loss  of  Memory J8 

All-in-all,  Salvation  and  Forgiveness J  9 

Of  Divine  Suffering  and  Forgiveness 20 

The  Large  Religion 21 

The  Sickness  of  the  Dark  Side 24 

Freedom 25 

Beautiful  Discontent  and  the  Soul  Supreme 27 

The  Religion  of  Embrace  and  Aspiration 29 

Of  Immortality  and  the  Great  Consolation 30 

Both-Seeing  and  the  Use  of  the  Underloofc 31 

A  Universe  of  Contradictions 33 

The  Two  of  the  One 34 

Of  Love  that  Holds  and  Liberates 36 

Genius  and  the  Ideal 38 

Of  Hero  Worship  and  Demigods 39 

We  Find  Our  Own 40 


PAGE 

The  Genesis  of  the  Ungenoine ,  4J 

The  Real 42 

Emantiel 43 

The  Path 44 

Blending 45 

Character 48 

The  Variety  and  Uniformity  in  Universal  Life 48 

The  Image 49 

Living  and  Outliving 49 

The  Service  of  Reversion 50 

God-Names 51 

At-One-Ment 52 

Satisfaction  in  Dawn-Thinking 53 

The  Dawn 53 

Good  and  Evil  in  the  Partial 54 

Fanaticism  and  Common-Sense 56 

The  Heart  of  Religion 57 

Acceptance  and  Contradiction  in  Prayer 57 

Life  and  Faith 6J 

Enlargement 62 

The  Dawn-Joy 62 

The  Light  of  the  "World 63 

Superstition  and  Knowledge 63 

Pain  and  Fear  the  Utterance  of  the  Partial 64 

Greatness 65 

Frankness 65 

An  Answer  on  Politeness. 67 

Sin  is  Refused  Grow^th 68 

The  Ongo 69 

The  Virtue  of  Sin 69 

The  Hard  and  the  Soft 70 


PAGE 

The  Large  Contains  Contfadiction 75 

The  Word  "God" 75 

Of  Certain  Meanings  and  Matters  in  Love 77 

Mother  Love 83 

Of  Marriage 85 

The  Evolution  of  Words 87 

Lifers  Hard  and  Soft  in  Art 88 

Of  the  Spirit-World  and  its  Importance 90 

Of  Reincarnation 104 

Summary  of  Spirit  Doctrine J05 

Why  Evil  is  First  and  Love  Last 107 

The  Passion  for  Greatness 109 

The  Bends  and  Reaches  in  the  River  of  Life 116 

Truth  is  Central;  Limits  are  Arbitrary  and  False  ■     .     .     •  n7 

Evolution  in  Battle 120 

Of  the  Lover  and  Beloved,  and  the  Uplift  and  Fitness  in 

Loving 121 

The  Assurance  of  Greatness 124 

To  be  Good 126 

Of  Vital  Unity 127 

Of  the  Counter  Truth,  Individuality,  and  its  Relation  to 

Unity 130 

Noblesse  Oblige 133 

We  Return  and  Reap 134 

Sowing  and  Reaping 135 

Somewhat    on   Liberty   and   Love    and   the   Ethics   of    the 

Dawn 136 

Conscience 142 

The  Law  of  Right  Betv/een  Societies 143 

Of  War  and  Peace 144 

Reality 155 

vii 


PAGE 

Natural  and  Artificial J55 

The  Law  of  Opposites  proved  in  Messiah-men 157 

Of  Conscience  and  Evil J58 

Heredity J6J 

Adumbrations J64 

Infinity 168 

Finer  Forces J70 

The  True  Cross J72 

Of  Pessimism,  the  Infidel,  and  the  Believer      .     .     .     ...     .  J73 

Sex 175 

Modesty 176 

Love,  Sacrifice,  Parenthood t79 

Home 182 

The  New  Chivalry 186 

The  At-one-ment  in  Marriage t86 

The  Religion  of  Atheism J  89 

Of  True  Individuality J93 

An  Afterword J95 


J£M  Zcvcce. 

0  give  me  the  grace  of  a  tolerant  heart. 

Of  a  thought  so  large  as  the  sphere  of  men, 
A  joy  to  hold,  and  health  to  impart. 
The  inside  touch  and  the  linking  ken  I 

Lo,  the  trees  of  the  wood  are  my  next  of  kin. 
And  the  rocks  alive  ■with  what  beats  in  me ; 

The  clay  is  my  flesh,  and  the  fox  my  sin, 
I  am  fierce  with  the  gad-fly,  and  sweet  with  the  bet 

The  flower  is  naught  but  the  bloom  of  my  love. 
And  the  waters  run  down  in  the  tune  I  dream. 

The  sun  is  my  flow^er,  uphung  above, 
I  flash  w^ith  the  lightning,  with  falcons  scream. 

All  prophets  have  broken  to  me  my  creed, 

AU  sceptics  have  saved  my  faith  alive. 
All  superstitions  I  know,  indeed. 

From  infinite  depths  their  truth  derive, 

1  worship  the  serpent  and  shining  sun. 
The  carven  wood,  and  the  mystic  stone, 

Brahma,  Allah,  Sweet  Mary's  Son, 

The  Power  Inclusive,  known,  unknown, 

I  worship  all,  yet  I  stand  up  free; 

To  all  I  reach  with  the  equal  handj 
Saint,  disciple,  and  devotee. 

Infidel,  atheist,  mystic,  stand, 

ix 


I  cannot  die,  though  forever  death 
Weave  back  and  fro  in  the  warp  of  me, 

I  was  never  born,  yet  my  births  of  breath 
Are  as  many  as  waves  on  the  sleepless  sea. 

I  am  God  in  heaven,  and  soul  in  hell, 

The  murderer  damned,  and  the  hero  dead. 

An  orb  where  the  stars  in  their  nations  dwell. 
The  babe,  the  parent,  the  maiden  wed. 

Before  I  was,  and  I  still  shall  be, 

When  the  worlds  are  dead  and  the  suns  hang  cold; 
And  the  secrets  of  all  eternity 

Are  mine  to  remember  when  all  is  told. 

I  came  from  the  loins  of  the  highest  king. 
And  whenever  my  home  my  footsteps  find, 

I  shall  know,  I  shall  be  the  infinite  thing. 
All,  all,  shall  inherit,  to  loose  or  bind, 

I  am  brother  of  all,  and  them  I  am, 
I  may  plead  not  guilty  to  not  one  sin; 

I  am  slavish  bom  as  the  seed  of  Ham, 
Yet  the  infinite  sceptre  my  hand  fits  in. 

I  must  drink  all  joy,  and  breathe  all  pain. 
Live  out  each  virtue,  and  every  crime, 

All  shames  must  suffer,  all  plaudits  gain. 
Of  all  soul-growings  be  soil  and  clime. 

For  the  AH  is  One,  and  all  are  part, 

And  not  apart  as  they  seem  to  be| 
And  the  blood  of  life  has  a  single  heart. 

Beating  through  God,  and  clod,  and  me. 


And  the  river  of  life  is  a  stream  of  force. 
Through  endless  circles  forever  run ; 

And  no  thing  hath  from  another  divorce. 
Yet  liberty  opens  ■while  love  makes  one» 


morning 
way   on 


BawnsXTbougbt. 

N  the  winter  of  '95-'97  I  rode  into 
the  city  of  New  York  each  morn- 
ing from  my  home  in  New  Jersey, 
and  to  beguile  the  journey  used  gen- 
erally to  carry  some  little  book  of 
Emerson's  or  Carpenter's.  One 
I  had  been  thus  reading,  and  was  half- 
my  way,  when  a  sudden  illuminating 
thought  entered  my  mind  that  stopped  all  read- 
ing for  that  day,  and  has  had  a  profound  influence 
on  my  life  ever  since.  It  came  with  all  the  sin- 
cerity and  light  of  a  true  inspiration,  and,  strangely 
enough,  upon  a  subject  to  which  I  had  before  given 
but  slight  attention  indeed — namely  Pantheism. 
Of  course  my  discerning  reader  will  at  once  trace 
a  connection,  and  find  an  origin  for  this,  in  my 
course  of  reading,  and  may  be  right,  but  if  so  I 
was  unconscious  of  it.  Emerson  and  the  Tran- 
scendentalists  had  been  favorites,  since  childhood, 
in  my  reading,  but  with  no  reference  to  this.  I  had 
long  been  a  contented  Agnostic,  and  felt  toward 
Pantheism  as  tow^ard  all  other  theories  of  God  and 
the  universe,   regarding  all  as  guesses  at  truth, 

I 


THE  DAWN- 
ING OF  THE 
THOUGHT 


THE  DAWN- 
ING OF  THE 
THOUGHT 


unproved  hypotheses,  to  which  I  had  little  appe- 
tite. Indeed  I  rather  misliked  Pantheism,  for  no 
better  reason  than  this,  that  its  logical  end,  I 
thought,  was  Nirvana,  and  Nirvana,  I  concluded, 
and  had  been  told,  meant  annihilation  to  the  indi- 
vidual. Not  reflecting  very  much  on  the  subject, 
how^ever,  I  did  not  observe  that  practically  all,  or 
at  least  most  religions  and  philosophies,  came  to 
some  such  conclusion.  Materialism,  for  example, 
ends  us  here,  and  then  dissolves  us  into  the  uni- 
verse, -which  is  a  sort  of  Nirvana  ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian in  heaven  is  so  resigned  to  the  will  of  God, 
so  absorbed  in  devotion,  that  he  is  practically 
resolved  into  the  Divine  Being.  The  progressive 
spirit  of  the  Spiritualist  is  on  the  same  road,  and 
must  get  there  in  time;  and,  in  brief,  unless  w^e 
adopt  the  theory  that  there  is  in  the  universe 
a  True  Polytheism — ^many  independent  intelli- 
gences and  forces  —  we  are  forced  to  some  such 
conclusion.  Nevertheless,  the  idea  of  annihilation 
■was  repulsive  to  my  strong  Individualism,  and 
I  disliked  Pantheism  with  the  rest.  And  yet  I 
had  been  inclined  all  my  life  to  adopt  the  theory 
that  there  was  in  the  universe  but  one  force, 
which  was  all,  one  element,  one  substance,  inter- 
changing forms  endlessly.  Clearly  this  was  fer- 
tile soil  for  Pantheism,  yet  heretofore  the  seed 
had  not  taken  root.         a 


But  the  thought,  or  intuition,  or  revelation,  that  THE  DAWN- 
came  to  me  that  bright  January  morning,  was  ING  OF  THE 
one  that  suddenly  removed  my  objection  to  Nir-  THOUGHT 
vana.  I  do  not  think  I  could  have  derived  it  from 
Emerson  or  Thoreau  or  W^hitman  or  Carpenter, 
for  I  nowhere  find  that  they  have  expressed  it ; 
and,  so  far  as  I  still  know,  it  is  what  w^e  call  an 
"  original  "  idea.  And  it  seemed  not  only  to  run 
like  a  magnetic  current  through  all  my  w^orld 
of  chaotic  facts  and  theories,  suddenly  arranging 
all  in  beautiful  order  and  coherence,  but  it  seemed, 
at  the  same  time,  to  cast  a  flood  of  light  over  the 
authors  named,  so  that,  for  the  first  time,  I  felt 
that  I  understood  them,  and  had  in  my  hand  the 
key  to  all  their  secrets  and  hard  sayings.  And 
a  certain  sub-conscious  bitterness  and  cynicism 
which  I  had  experienced  for  years  seemed  to 
have  dropped  away  also,  and  I  felt  a  glad  sense 
of  peace  and  reconciliation.  For  the  first  time  I 
felt  I  understood  why  all  these  transcendentalists 
manifested  such  a  bright,  healthy  cheerfulness ; 
something  that  had  before  both  attracted  and 
surprised  me.  For  I  think  no  other  believers, 
of  any  sort,  seem  so  serenely,  comfortably 
cheery  at  all  times,  and  utterly  without  gall,  as 
Pantheists. 


THE  DAWN- 
THOUGHT 


THERE  IS 
BUT  ONE 


ELL,  not  to  detain  the  reader, 
this  "Dawn  Thought  of  mine  was 
to  the  effect  that  absorption  of 
the  individual  into  the  Divine  did 
not  mean  annihilation,  but  the 
contrary  in  the  extreme  sense  — 
that  it  was  the  arriving  at  real,  full-grown,  com- 
plete and  conscious  Individuality,  impossible  be- 
fore.    There  was  but  One. 

This  view  of  the  matter  may  be  familiar  enough, 
for  aught  I  know,  to  Buddhistic  and  Brahminical 
thinkers,  but  to  me  it  v^as  altogether  new  and 
self-derived,  so  to  speak. 

For  when  w^e  come  to  reflect  upon  that  on 
which  I  had  not  before  reflected,  and  to  reason 
about  that  which  seemed  to  come  to  me  in  an 
instant  without  reasoning,  the  argument  appears 
like  this : 

HERE  is  but  One.  Call  it  what  we 
please,  the  Universe,  or  God,  or 
by  any  other  name,  it  is  the  same. 
The  Serpent  has  his  tail  in  his 
mouth  ;  the  chain  of  causation  and 
relation  is  nowhere  broken,  nor 
can  be.  If  the  One  created  the  universe,  he  must 
have  made  it  from  himself,  for  there  was  nothing 
else  to  make  it  from,  and  it  must  still  be  himself, 

4 


as  the  body  is  the  man  in  his  outward  aspect.  If  THERE  IS 
this  theory  is  true,  everything  is  convertible  (the  BUT  ONE 
philosopher's  stone  not  such  a  chimera  after  all) 
and  in  the  last  analysis  all  are  one  and  the  same. 
Matter  is  but  congealed  spirit,  and  spirit  but  sub- 
limated matter,  and  each  transformable  into  the 
other.  Granite  is  no  more  substantial  than  hope, 
and  thought  is  as  real  a  substance  as  marble  or 
diamond.  The  One  must  be  Life,  and  every- 
thing must  be  alive,  metal  and  sand,  lightning- 
flash,  stick  and  rainbow,  imagination,  laughter 
and  pain. 

Separateness  cannot  be  real,  but  must  be  a  sort 
of  illusion,  for  everything  is  cemented  and  related 
on  every  side,  and  cannot  find  a  free  chink  to  peep 
through,  or  anyvi^here  to  draw  in  a  free  breath 
from  the  outer.  There  is,  philosophers  say,  "no 
vacuum  in  nature,"  v/hich  is  a  confession  of  one- 
ness and  continuity. 

But  if  the  all  is  Divine  it  must  be  so  in  each 
and  every  part,  and  more  or  less  so  according  to 
the  quantity  contained  w^ithin  its  form.  For,  as 
Sw^edenborg  sho^ws,  an  individual  or  separate  is 
but  a  form,  through  which  the  universe  flows  like 
a  stream  —  the  quality  of  the  individual  depend- 
ing upon  the  form,  or  upon  the  aggregate  of  con- 
tained forms,  or  individuals,  within  the  form,  for 


THERE    IS 
BUT    ONE 


THE  CEN- 
TER AND 

THE  TWO 
ASPECTS  OF 
THE  DIVINE 


most  individuals  are  confederations  or  societies 
of  lesser  individuals. 

But  if  there  is  no  real  break  in  the  continuity  of 
nature,  and  if  each  is  a  part  of  all,  and  not  only 
that  but  inseparably  united  to  it,  then  each  and 
all  are  one  and  the  same  ;  and  if  any  can  be  called 
God  then  God  is  all,  and  all  is  God,  jointly  and 
severally,  wholly  and  in  part.  If  this  is  true,  each 
man  is  God,  and  all  men  are  God ;  and  not  only 
that  but  every  animal,  bird,  leaf,  stone,  and  clod, 
likewise  every  force  and  every  thought,  is  God. 

UT  if  separateness  is  not  actual  it 
is  apparent  and  relative.  When 
we  touch  a  man's  finger-nail  wre 
touch  him,  but  it  is  not  the  same 
as  touching  a  nerve,  it  is  not  the 
same  to  touch  the  nerve  as  to  touch 
the  brain.  According  to  the  form,  the  indwelling 
life  and  divinity  are  more  or  less  apparent  and 
revealed.  While  life  and  a  sort  of  intelligence 
are  everyvv^here,  they  are  not  the  same  in  degree 
or  expression,  they  differ  in  consciousness. 

Just  as  in  man,  while  he  is  one,  there  is  a  part 
w^here  consciousness,  intelligence,  and  volition  are 
especially  located,  and  the  other  parts  differ  in 
their  greater  or  lesser  distance  from  that,  in 
their  greater  or  less  resemblance  to  it ;  so  in  the 


Universal  One  there  probably,  somewhere,  is  a 
part  which  is  "God,"  or  "Father," (better  Father- 
Mother  or  Parent)  in  the  peculiar  sense — con- 
sciousness, life,  intelligence,  force,  in  the  pure  or 
essence  —  and  other  parts  may  be  classified  by 
their  greater  or  less  distance  from  this  Center, 
their  greater  or  less  resemblance  to  it. 

There  are  then  tw^o  aspects  of  the  Divine  — 
God  in  the  peculiar  or  personal  sense  (which  is 
the  truth  expressed  in  all  anthropomorphic  con- 
ceptions) the  Center,  the  Pure,  the  Essence,  the 
Parent,  the  Maker,  the  Fountain-Head,  who  may 
be  symbolized  by  the  intersection  of  tw^o,  thus, 
-I-,  and  God  in  the  inclusive  or  pantheistic  sense, 
who  is  the  AU-in-All,  the  Inclusive  One,  the  In- 
finite, symbolized  by  a  circle  or  sphere,  O.  Not 
that  these  are  really  separate,  or  two,  for  they 
are  really  One,  0,  but  that  thus  the  mind  may 
the  more  conveniently  handle  the  subject. 

ND  this,  too,  w^as  in  my  thought, 
that  there  was  really,  all  the  time, 
but  One  Individual  in  all  the  uni- 
verse, constituting  it,  but  multi- 
tudes of  apparent  individuals,  or 
forms,  and  in  each  apparent  indi- 
vidual a  consciousness  of  the  Real  Individual, 
mingled  with  and  modified  by  a  greater  or  less 

7 


THE    CEN- 
TER  AND 
THE   TWO 
ASPECTS  OF 
THE  DIVINE 


THE    CON- 
SCIOUSNESS 
OF  INDIVID- 
UALITY 


THE    CON- 
SCIOUSNESS 
OF  INDIVID- 
UALITY 


illusion  of  separateness  (according  to  the  greater 
or  less  attainment)  causing  the  part,  or  form,  to 
regard  itself  for  the  time  as  a  separate  individual. 
What  therefore  we  call  our  individual  conscious- 
ness is  really  our  apprehension  of  the  One  Only 
Individual ;  and  he  seems  thus  because  he  really 
is  our  ego,  or  self,  our  life,  and  we  have  no  ex- 
istence or  intelligence  apart.  To  lose  this  appre- 
hension of  individuality  -would  be  annihilation ; 
therefore  it,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  the  one  thing 
that  seems  sure  to  us.  I  am,  I  exist,  is  the 
foundation  faith,  the  primal  postulate.  Like  the 
forking  fingers  of  the  hand,  w^e  are  separate  and 
yet  not  separate,  but  one  through  the  arm  ;  like 
the  branches  of  a  river,  we  are  apart,  yet  all  one 
in  the  main  current. 

Through  all  the  lower  forms  of  the  universe, 
up  to  man,  there  is  an  increase  in  consciousness ; 
and  in  man,  through  all  the  lovi^er  forms  up  to 
the  Grand  Man,  there  is  a  steady  enlargement 
of  consciousness,  and  of  self-conscious  dignity, 
divinity,  and  identity  v/ith  the  universe,  until  at 
last,  in  Nirvana,  the  man  completes  his  changes 
of  elusive  separateness,  and  emerges  into  com- 
plete consciousness  of  all,  and  of  himself  as  that 
all.  In  absolutely  losing  self  he  first  completely 
finds  self,  which  is  the  key  to  many  dark  sayings 


in  the  v/orld's  Bibles,  which  explains  the  ineradi- 
cable altruistic  passion  for  the  first  time,  and  its 
hold  on  the  world's  highest  and  purest  minds, 
and  the  enthusiasm  we  all  feel  in  the  presence  of 
its  manifestations  ;  for  the  less  selfish  we  are, 
that  is,  the  less  v/e  feel  ourselves  separate  selves, 
the  nearer  we  come  to  the  Center,  approach  to 
which  is  our  law  of  growth,  and  in  our  growth  is 
our  happiness. 

ND  here,  too,  in  its  reconciliation 
of  Individuality  and  Solidarity,  we 
strike  a  key-note  of  this  philoso- 
phy, a  basic  truth  to  be  perpetu- 
ally affirmed  and  returned  to,  that 
in  it  extremes  meet  and  oposites 
are  reconciled.  It  is  the  Reconciliation,  In  af- 
firming all  religions,  all  philosophies,  all  sciences, 
all  faiths,  all  earnest  teachers,  as  true,  it  destroys 
antagonisms,  prejudice,  and  bitterness,  and  cre- 
ates true  tolerance,  respect,  and  fraternity.  For 
as  truth  is  the  food  of  our  growth,  we  can  never 
really  forgive  one  v^hom  we  think  withholds  it 
from  us  with  evil  intent,  or  who  teaches  us 
falsity.  We  are  obliged  to  fear  the  liar,  and  dread 
the  false  view.  "  Do  you  love  me  ?  "  says  Emer- 
son, '<  means.  Do  you  see  the  same  truth?" 
And  until  men   are   reconciled   about  truth  they 

9 


THE  CON- 
SCIOUSNESS 
OF  INDIVID- 
UALITY 


THERECON- 
CILIATION 


THE RECON- 
CILIATION 

THE  CHEER 

OF   THE 

DAWN 

THOUGHT 


can  never  be  reconciled  at  all,  and  "love  your 
neighbor"  is  an  impracticable  precept. 

Love  is  the  mending  of  the  shattered  sphere. 

|NE  of  the  first  and  most  striking 
things  to  be  observed  about  this 
philosophy,  or  religion,  is  its  effect 
I  &^  ^  I  Jl  ^P°^  ^^®  spirits  of  the  believer. 
j\  \r''TyV  y^  It  is  infinite  in  its  possibilities  of 
r^^^^wiiir -"^^r'l'  niental  cheer.  It  fills  at  once  the 
life  of  the  meanest  man  with  dignity  and  grace  — 
for  he  is  not  only  a  child  of  God  but  one  with 
him,  the  Infinite  Universe  itself  in  ultimate  des- 
tiny, becoming  that  so  far,  and  so  fast,  as  he 
opens  his  soul  and  enlarges  it  to  the  divine  com- 
prehensiveness. He  is  heir  to  the  full  estate,  with 
no  rivals.  All  powers,  all  forces,  all  possessions, 
are  his.  His  immortality  is  assured,  made  fast 
by  every  promise  and  every  fact.  It  is  more  than 
a  hope,  it  is  unthinkable  otherwise.  No  longer 
need  of  V7orry  about  time.  You  have  all  the  time 
there  is  ;  and  all  eternity  too,  if  there  is  any  dif- 
ference, is  yours.  No  longer  dread  death ;  it  is 
only  one  of  the  necessary  changes  and  progres- 
sive steps  which  lead  to  your  inheritance.  Rise 
up  in  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  your  manhood, 
above  pettiness  of  care  and  anxiety,  and  be  as 
a  god  on  the  earth,  conscious  of  your  worth  and 


destiny,  large  and  frank  and  generous  and  free,  as 
becomes  one  of  princely  wealth  and  fortune.  You 
can  no  longer  afford  to  feel  small  or  be  small  — 
noblesse  oblige.  There  is  a  new  heaven,  w^hich 
is  divine  attainment,  a  nev/  hell,  v/hich  is  distance 
from  the  Divine,  and  a  new  earth,  in  which  liber- 
ated man,  free  of  fear,  filled  with  the  health  of  a 
great  thought,  v/alks  joyously  onward.  No  other 
religion  holds  out  so  high  a  hope,  offers  so  grand 
a  destiny  or  so  great  a  reward.  And  this  for  all 
men  and  all  things,  absolutely  v/ithout  excep- 
tion. It  is  truly  universal  and  inclusive,  therefore 
thoroughly  satisfies  the  broadest  intellect  and  the 
most  generous  emotion.  It  more  than  meets 
Tennyson's  beautiful  inspiration  :  — 

"I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last  —  far  off — at  last  to  all." 

^  ND  another  beautiful  corollary  is 
the  fraternal  feeling  evoked.  No 
other  religion  may  compare  w^ith 
it  here.  The  Hindoo's  brother- 
hood is  limited  by  his  caste,  the 
Jew's  by  his  race,  the  Christian's 
by  his  sect,  or,  at  largest,  by  his  faith,  for  he 
cannot  be  "  unequally  yoked  together  with  un- 
believers "  ("  or  what  part  hath  he  that  believeth 

II 


THE  CHEER 
OF   THE 
DAWN 
THOUGHT 


OF   SOLI- 
DARITY 


OF  SOLrl-  with  an  infidel  ?  "),  but  the  Pantheist  can  make  no 
DARITY  exceptions,  may  exclude  none.  All  men  are  his 
brothers,  nay,  more,  are  himself.  To  love  his 
neighbor  as  himself  is  to  him  no  empty  precept, 
but  a  logical  necessity  of  his  faith.  All  other 
human  beings  whatever  are  a  part  of  his  very 
body  and  soul.  His  life  is  one  with  their  life. 
But  he  may  not  stop  even  here.  He  is  united 
with  everything,  —  beast,  tree,  flower,  and  rock, 
—  he  is  they,  and  they  are  he,  and  one  great  life 
binds  all.  Does  not  this  contain  a  possible  ex- 
planation of  the  mysteries  of  vital  magnetic  heal- 
ing, of  nutrition  ?  May  not  one  life  feed  another, 
one  body  be  transformed  into  another  body,  and 
into  life  for  that  body  ?  Why  not,  if  all  is  of  the 
same  ? 

All  petty  obstacles  and  prejudices  of  race,  of 
nationality,  of  country,  of  color,  fade  away  and 
disappear  in  the  sunrise  of  this  grand,  this  mag- 
nificent generalization.  The  true  Pantheist  knov/s 
only  one  country,  one  nation,  one  race,  one  reli- 
gion, and  himself  lives  through  all  and  in  all. 
He  cannot  help  realizing  the  inspired  vi'-ords  of 
Thomas  Paine  (no  grander  ones  in  any  Bible  !) 
"  The  world  is  my  country,  to  do  good  my  reli- 
gion;  "  and  again  he  agrees  v/ith  him  when  he 
says,  "I  believe  in  one  God,  and  no  more."    With 

12 


the  Mohammedan  he  cries,  "There  is  one  God,  and  OF  SOLI- 
Mohammed  is  his  prophet!"  and  further  agrees  DARITY 
v/ith  him  that  every  country  and  race  and  time 
has  its  prophet,  suited  to  its  genius.  He  accepts 
all  religions  and  all  religious  teachers,  and  rises 
serenely  above  them,  distributing  the  merit  and 
truth  of  each  -with  impartial  gratitude,  and  cor- 
recting their  mistakes  in  the  generous  light  of  a 
brighter  day.  "With  the  Unitarian  he  is  one  -vidth 
the  One  God ;  with  the  Universalist  he  has  con- 
demnation for  none.  And  with  the  Polytheist  he 
sees  the  God  to  be  worshiped  in  everything,  and 
understands  how  it  has  come  about,  in  the  course 
of  human  evolution,  that  each  thing  has  come 
before  the  mind  of  man  —  the  stars  and  sex,  hero, 
serpent,  ape,  and  stone  and  lightning-flash  and 
little  bird  and  fish  and  flow-er  —  in  its  infinite 
mystery,  rightfully  demanding  and  receiving  his 
adoration.  For  on  one  side  everything  reaches 
to  and  takes  hold  on  the  Inmost  (and  on  every 
side  is  touched  and  penetrated  by  and  made  in- 
separable from  the  Inclusive)  and  is  divine.  And 
there  is  nothing  omitted. 

And  he  can  see,  too,  the  truth  of  the  Atheist's 
feeling  that  in  all  the  universe  he  can  find  no  God, 
only  himself  and  his  own  consciousness,  for  that, 
too,  is  fact ;  he  is  all,  and  it  is  only  the  larger  and 

13 


OF  SOLI-  purer  part  of  himself  that  a  man  calls  "  God  "  (his 
DARITY  Ideal  of  Perfection  in  character),  and  he  is  free  to 
worship  or  not,  as  he  pleases,  without  condemna- 
tion ;  nay,  whatever  he  may  say  or  do,  or  leave 
undone,  he  inevitably  does  worship,  for  no  man 
may  escape  the  flow  of  his  spirit  tow^ard  his 
Ideal,  and  this  is  worship  in  its  central  sense. 
The  Atheist  as  truly  worships  as  the  most  pos- 
turing formalist,  only  he  represents  the  other  side. 

With  the  Comptist,  only  in  larger  view,  the 
Pantheist  sees  God  in  Humanity,  and  Humanity 
as  God.  With  the  Materialist  he  can  see  that 
all  is  matter,  and  v/ith  the  Spiritualist  that  all  is 
spirit,  for  these  are  but  different  terms  for  inter- 
changeable forms  of  the  same  thing.  With  the 
Agnostic  he  agrees  that  there  is  always  an  Un- 
knowable for  the  finite  mind.  But  vv^hen  the 
finite  mind  enlarges  into  the  Infinite  it  shall  know 
all  things  even  as  it  v/as  known  ;  and  it  is  only  in 
the  light  of  the  Dawn-Thought  that  such  a  pas- 
sage of  scripture  can  be  justified  or  explained,  for, 
obviously  and  logically,  no  finite  can  ever  embrace 
or  comprehend  the  infinite. 

And  so  the  Pantheist  has  in  the  DaAvn-Thought 
a  master-key  to  open  all  doors,  a  master  principle 
wherewith  to  arrange  all  sciences,  a  universal 
solvent  to  reduce  all  things  to  the  one  and  original 
element.  ja 


ND  is  it  not  true  that  only  some 
form  of  Deism  can  explain  the 
undoubted  fact  of  prevision  and 
prophecy,  to  \A^hich  all  ages  and 
faiths  offer  such  abundant  testi- 
mony ?  At  least  it  is  very  easy 
to  understand  that  if  there  is  only  one  penetrative 
and  omnipresent  Life,  resident  in  every  atom  of 
the  universe,  constituting,  forming,  controlling  it 
in  every  detail,  then  this  Life  knows  all,  -what  has 
been,  what  is,  what  shall  be,  and  this  knowledge 
can,  under  favorable  and  necessary  conditions,  be 
communicated.  A  finite  mind  v/hich  had  to  some 
extent  lost  its  separateness,  and  mingled  more 
freely  with  the  great  currents  of  being,  could  then 
read  the  Book  of  Life  for  many  pages,  backward 
or  forward,  or  both,  or  know  the  secrets  of  dis- 
tance. Thus  could  psychometry,  prophecy,  clair- 
voyance, be  explained.  Certainly  I  know  of  no 
materialistic  philosophy  which  even  attempts  to 
explain  prophecy.  It  contents  itself  with  denial. 
ND  this  suggests  the  old  riddles  of 
fate  and  free-will,  and  confirms  and 
reconciles  both  of  these  apparently 
implacable  opponents.  Our  inex- 
tinguishable conviction  of  free-will 
and  our  equally  irrepressible  con- 
15 


OF 
PROPHECY 


FATE   AND 
FREE-WILL 


FATE    AND 
FREE-WILL 


THE 

REASON    OF 
EVIL 


viction  of  immortal  individuality  both  manifestly 
refer  to  the  same  fact,  our  latent,  semi-conscious, 
and  becoming  God-hood.  It  is  on  our  inward, 
our  Central  side,  that  we  have  free-will,  immor- 
tality, individuality ;  on  our  outward,  or  world- 
side,  we  are  mortal,  and  throw^n,  bound  hand  and 
foot,  into  the  stream  of  an  irresistible  fate. 

ND  this,  my  Dawn-Thought,  gives 
me  the  first  and  only  explanation 
of  evil  that  has  for  a  moment  satis- 
fied me.  Indeed,  it  was  the  moral 
objection  to  the  existence  of  a 
Divinity,  brought  before  me  by  the 
unchecked  existence  of  evil  and  the  elaborate 
provision  for  its  perpetuity  that  the  universe 
presents  in  every  part,  that  seemed  logically  to 
force  me  into  Atheism,  and  only  w^hen  I  could  see 
some  reasonable  justification  for  the  making  and 
keeping  of  evil  could  I  accept  Deity  as  a  possibility. 
But  the  view  which  my  Dawn-thinking  gave 
me  of  evil  was  this  :  Only  the  w^hole  can  be  per- 
fect, the  part  is  necessarily  incomplete.  Any 
partition  w^hatever,  then,  in  the  universe,  and 
any  separateness,  real  or  apparent,  any  distance 
from  the  Divine,  must  mean  incompleteness  ; 
and  to  be  incomplete  is  to  be  imperfect,  and  to  be 
imperfect  is,  necessarily  and  inevitably,  to  be  sub- 

i5 


ject  to  all  the  evils  that  only  completeness  and  THE 
perfection  can  remedy.  But  action  requires  the  REASON  OF 
actor  and  the  object  acted  upon ;  therefore  the  EVILr 
Divine  One,  in  order  to  have  action,  has  to  project 
himself  into  outer  forms  on  which  he  can  act,  to 
part  and  separate  himself  to  a  certain  extent ;  and 
this  partition,  -while  to  a  great  extent  only  an 
appearance  and  an  illusion,  is  still,  in  its  relation 
to  the  consciousness  of  the  parts  and  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  necessities  of  the  Divine  Action,  a  real 
thing.  The  parts  feel  themselves  to  be,  and  to 
that  extent  are,  separate.  In  the  Divine  Con- 
templation, the  Divine  Rest,  the  Divine  Unity, 
the  Divine  Sympathy,  the  Divine  Embrace,  they 
are  one ;  but  in  the  Divine  Action  they  resolve 
into  parts,  acted  upon  and  acting  on  each  other. 
This  is  the  Mystery,  the  Paradox.  But  the  parts, 
being  thus  apart,  are  incomplete,  and  being  in- 
complete are  subject  to  evil.  Being  imperfect  in 
health,  they  are  subject  to  sickness  ;  being  imper- 
fect in  wisdom,  they  are  subject  to  ignorance  ; 
being  imperfect  in  virtue,  they  are  subject  to  sin  ; 
being  imperfect  in  strength,  they  are  subject  to 
weakness.  This  can  best  be  illustrated  by  shat- 
tering a  sphere.  Now  each  piece  is-  imperfect, 
being  less  than  the  sphere,  and  of  another  shape. 
Only  when  all  fit  together  again  in  the  order  of 

17 


THE 

REASON  OF 

EVIL 


LOSS  OF 
MEMORY 


their  breaking  is  harmony  restored,  and  this  not 
for  each,  as  a  separate  one,  but  for  all  together  as 
One. 

This  imperfectness,  this  evil  in  the  parts,  is 
inevitable,  a  necessity  of  their  being  as  parts,  and 
cannot  be  avoided,  even  by  the  Divine,  until  Nir- 
vana is  attained.  When  we  attain  it,  it  will  all 
appear  right  to  us,  for  we  shall  see  that  it  was  all 
the  time  our  plan  and  our  willing  sacrifice. 

UT  as  the  Divine,  in  order  to  act, 
must  project  members  which  shall 
feel  themselves  separate,  just  as 
a  cell  must  extemporize  organs 
and  members  in  order  to  exercise 
functions,  and  as  every  such  spe- 
cialization of  function  carries  with  it  a  consequent 
weakness  and  limitation  as  well  as  a  peculiar 
strength,  and  is  obliged  to  be  different  in  order  to 
feel  separate,  so  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
simple,  efficient  device  regularly  adopted  by  the 
Center,  in  order  that  the  separation  of  the 
parts  should  to  themselves  appear  real.  Loss  of 
memory  is  this,  in  one  word  ;  for  if  any  part  could 
realize  all  its  previous  existence  it  would  at  once 
know  itself  as  one  and  continuous,  and  not  as 
broken  off  and  dissevered.  With  every  re-birth 
of  a  projected  life  into  a  new  form,  previous  exist- 

i8 


ence  in  past  forms  and  in  Nirvana  is  usually  com- 
pletely forgotten  (except  a  sort  of  sub-conscious 
memory),  and  the  life  seems  to  be,  by  reason  of 
this,  an  entirely  new  and  independent  existence. 
(To  the  Divine  Contemplation  all  must  appear 
One,  but  in  the  Divine  Action  there  is  a  working 
fiction,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  of  separateness,  the 
Divine  Center,  as  a  part,  acting  upon  the  Divine 
Outer,  or  surrounding  parts,  as  a  sun  upon  its 
system.  Therefore  separateness  is  a  paradox, 
both  real  and  unreal,  but  in  the  deepest,  truest 
sense  unreal.  Unity  is  the  central  truth,  the 
Truth.)  Manifestly  it  is  only  thus  that  apparent 
separateness  can  be  attained,  for,  if  we  recol- 
lected our  past  existence,  we  should  realize  per- 
fectly our  continuity  and  Divinity.  But  God  sends 
us  strong  delusion  that  v/e  should  believe  a  lie. 

This  explains  and  justifies  to  me  our  forgetful- 
ness  of  past  existence  which  previously  had 
always  been  to  me  an  inscrutable  mystery,  an 
unjustifiable  evil. 

UT  as  the  inclusive  One  is  not 
subject  himself  to  this  illusion,  as 
his  consciousness  remains  per- 
fect, so  he  knows  himself  all  and 
in  all,  whatever  is  felt  he  feels, 
whatever  is  done  he  does,  what- 

19 


LOSS    OF 
MEMORY 


ALL-IN-ALL, 
SALVATION 
AND    FOR- 
GIVENESS 


ALL-IN-ALL, 
SALVATION 
AND    FOR- 
GIVENESS 


OF   DIVINE 

SUFFERING 

AND 

HAPPINESS 


ever  we  suffer  he  suffers,  all  action  and  cessation 
are  his.  And  this  is  the  only  reasonable  explana- 
tion of  the  Christian  saying  that  he  bears  our 
sins  and  suffers  our  sorrows.  And  as  all  is  him- 
self, and  as  self-love  is  perfect  love,  and  as  he 
cannot  condemn  his  own  acts,  his  forgiveness  is 
perfect.  His  love  for  us  is  perfect  love,  he  is  the 
sinner  and  the  saviour  in  one.  His  righteous- 
ness, the  perfectness  of  the  w^hole  of  which  v/e 
are  parts,  is  imputed  to  us,  and  by  it  we  are 
saved.  Were  it  possible  to  fall  out  of  the  grasp 
of  the  Whole  we  should  be  annihilated,  but  that 
is  impossible,  for  outside  there  is  nothing,  there  is 
no  outside. 

L^D  yet,  though  the  Divine  com- 
mits all  our  sins  and  bears  all  our 
sorrows,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  he  sins  as  we  sin,  or  suffers 
as  we  do.  For  even  with  us  it  is 
constantly  to  be  observed  that 
what  to  us  w^as  once  a  sin  proves,  w^ith  a  larger 
environment  and  in  the  light  of  higher  knowledge, 
no  sin,  though  the  same  act ;  and  what  causes 
us  pain  and  sadness  becomes,  in  the  same  way, 
in  our  progressive  development,  adapted  and 
justified  into  beauty,  ease,  and  gladness.  So  the 
Inclusive  One,  consistently  carrying  out  his  plans, 

20 


commits  no  sin  ;  for  he  cannot  injure  himself. 
Although  he  commits  in  us  all  the  acts  that  we, 
in  relation  to  ourselves,  call  sins,  and  although 
he  feels  in  us  all  our  emotions  which  cause  us 
pain,  he  does  not  really  fear,  or  sin,  or  suffer, 
because  he  understands  these  acts  and  emotions 
and  their  use  and  cannot  regret  his  ow^n  perfect 
deeds.  In  other  words,  'while  he  commits  all 
and  feels  all,  the  poison  of  evil,  so  to  speak,  is,  in 
his  case,  instantly  neutralized  by  his  wholeness. 
For  wholeness  (holiness)  is  health,  and  as  w^e 
progressively  enlarge  into  Godhood  we  lose  sin 
and  sadness  and  sickness  and  realize  how^  little 
important,  w^hat  mists  and  fictions  they  were. 

O  other  view  of  the  universe,  that 
I  knov/  of,  can  so  satisfy  the  soul 
of  man  as  this,  because  no  other 
contains  its  largeness,  its  promise 
of  infinite  expansion. 

O  give  me  room  !  the  free  soul 
saith,  —  for  in  all  others  man  becomes  a  mere 
unit  in  a  series,  a  link  in  a  chain,  and  is  forever 
helplessly  and  hopelessly  limited  and  subordinate. 
The  relation  of  this  philosophy  to  truth  is  espe- 
cially to  be  noted,  and  has  been  somewhat  re- 
marked upon  in  the  foregoing.  Its  position  is 
that  because  all  expressions  of  life  and  thought 

21 


OF    DIVINE 
SUFFERING 
AND 
HAPPINESS 


THE   LARGE 
RELIGION 


THE  LARGE  are  from  the  Divine,  therefore  all  are  true,  and 
RELIGION  not  one  to  be  despised,  or  rejected  in  toto.  But, 
again,  as  each  is  the  proximate  act  of  a  finite  and 
partial  intelligence,  strained  and  filtered  through 
the  limitations  of  a  partial  form,  and  as  only  com- 
plete intelligence  can  furnish  or  express  complete 
truth,  therefore  all  are  false,  and  not  to  be 
accepted  or  believed  in  toto.  Here,  again,  ex- 
tremes meet  and  opposites  accord  in  reconcilia- 
tion. Faith  and  skepticism  are  seen  to  be  equally- 
valuable  and  justified,  and  to  be  used  concerning 
every  assertion  of  fact  or  intuition.  From  this 
application  necessarily  springs  the  broadest  eclec- 
ticism, the  v/idest  tolerance,  the  keenest  in- 
telligence, the  justest  impartiality,  the  fairest 
comparisons,  the  most  generous  sympathy,  the 
readiest  appreciation.  Prejudice  and  bigotry 
disappear,  and  free-thought  and  free-discus- 
sion, in  their  most  ideal  forms,  inevitably  assert 
themselves. 

All  doctrines,  philosophies,  religions,  become 
merely  as  a  bunch  of  keys  in  the  hands  of  the 
wise  man,  which  he  tries  in  succession  upon 
every  problem  presented  to  him,  seeking  for  the 
right  one  to  unlock  the  secret.  To  him  they  are 
tools,  not  codes  ;  he  is  above  them. 

In  this  philosophy,  wisdom  and  goodness  con- 

22 


sist  in  enlarging,  in  becoming  God,  in  becoming  THE  LARGE 
reconciled  and  one  with  universal  life.  It  is  not  RELIGION 
a  state  of  obedience,  but  of  being.  A  state  of  su- 
premacy, of  superiority,  of  strength  and  health 
radiating  its  own  virtue.  Do  we  not  find  this 
true  in  life,  that  in  proportion  as  we  enlarge  v/e 
increase  in  freedom,  tolerance,  courage,  wisdom, 
easy-working  strength  ;  become  genial,  generous, 
and  magnanimous,  helpful  to  others  ?  Codes  no 
longer  trouble  us  ;  we  often  violate  their  letter, 
but  we  vindicate  our  virtue  on  a  higher  plane. 
And  all  men  expect  this  of  us.  "We  do  not  w^onder 
that  the  weak,  ignorant  man  is  envious,  irritable, 
deceitful,  passion-ridden  ;  but  these  faults  in  the 
strong,  richly-endowed  man  seem  monstrous  to 
us.  And  when  a  large,  wise,  strong  man  is  virtu- 
ous it  never  excites  surprise  ;  it  seems  to  us  only 
appropriate  and  natural,  like  due  proportion  in  a 
statue. 

For  every  man  has  his  ideal  of  what  is  just, 
right,  proportionate,  appropriate  ;  an  ideal  con- 
stantly enlarging  with  its  attainment,  his  growth 
in  any  direction.  "We  despise  conceit,  egotism, 
complacency  ;  because  these  mean  that  a  man  is 
satisfied  with  his  attainment,  and  is  resting  there 
in  contented  stupidity,  short  of  the  true  Nirvana. 
This  that  we  call  the  ideal  in  us  is  the  instinct 

23 


THE  LARGE 
RELIGION 


THE  SICK- 
NESS OF 
THE  DARK 
SIDE 


of  growth,  of  enlargement,  the  impulse  to  attain, 
to  become  Divine,  to  include  all  things,  and  under- 
stand all.  And  whenever  we  find  attainment,  or 
what  appears  relatively  to  be  such,  in  any  thing 
or  creature,  in  any  direction,  what  we  call  ad- 
miration or  worship  is  '  excited.  We  cannot 
help  worshiping  transcendent  beauty,  wisdom, 
strength,  po^ver,  genius,  because  here  is  the 
Divine  manifest.  Our  ideals  live  before  us  in  the 
great,  and  we  recognize  their  attainment,  their 
v/orth-ship,  their  divinity.  And  the  more  gener- 
ously and  frankly  we  w^orship,  while  at  the  same 
time  clearly  but  kindly  recognizing  all  attendant 
weaknesses,  the  better  it  is  for  our  own  enlarge- 
ment. We  grow  in  the  likeness  of  what  we 
admire.  We  should  be  quick  and  generous  to 
praise  every  beautiful  feature,  every  brave  deed, 
every  wise  word,  every  great  thought ;  for  by  so 
doing  we  grov/  the  God  in  ourselves  and  others. 
ONVERSELY,  by  constantly 
dv/elling  on  the  faults  and  failures 
and  errors  of  those  persons  and 
doctrines  presented  to  us,  we  be- 
become  harsh,  rigid,  deformed, 
bitter,  and  limited  in  our  growth. 
We  shrink  instinctively  from  the  critical,  cynical 
man,  for  he  checks  our  growth  like  a  frost.     He 

24 


is  very  wise  in  the  matter  of  holea  and  old  elotheSj  the  sick- 


but  he  does  not  mend  nor  make. 

If  you  would  be  well,  trouble  not  about  disease, 
but  delight  in  health.  It  is  very  well  to  see  a 
fault,  but  the  slightest  standing  upon  it  as  a 
finality,  the  slightest  pessimism  and  hopelessness 
about  it,  is  unmanly  and  sickening,  starves  and 
shrivels  us. 

Pessimism  is  a  symptom  of  disease  and  stagna- 
tion. Lice  do  not  trouble  fat  cattle.  Don't 
trouble  about  the  evils  of  the  passing  present,  but 
appreciate  every  joy,  and  keep  every  body  think- 
ing about  the  ideal  future,  and  the  world  spins 
merrily  on.  For  life  is  grov/th,  and  growth  is 
tow^ard  the  light.  Life  is  the  cure  of  death,  health 
of  sickness,  joy  of  sorrow^,  love  of  hate,  hope  of 
fear,  virtue  of  sin.  Waste  no  time  in  remorse, 
but  step  on  your  mistake,  and  make  it  lift  you  up. 
Every  weakness  has  its  own  strength.  The  com- 
pensations are  adequate. 

rr^^'^^  NE  VITABLY  this  philosophy  leads 
to  freedom  in  its  widest.  It  liber- 
ates from  all  laws,  rules,  codes, 
dogmas,  formulas.  These  are  in- 
'i  deed  seen  to  be  useful,  but  only  as 
guides,  working-plans,  advices, 
tools.      They  are   not  finalities  or  masters.      A 


NESS  OF 
THE  DARK 
SIDE 


FREEDOM 


FREEDOM  principle  is  to  be  followed  till  the  exception  comes, 
and  then,  and  there  (where  the  opposing  extreme 
claims  its  equal  right)  is  found  a  neutral  ground 
and  an  open  door  through  which  the  freed  soul 
goes  outward  and  upward  to  higher  perception. 
And  this  freedom,  claimed  for  self,  inevitably 
extends  to  all,  for  all  are  equal  in  need,  in  ulti- 
mate destiny  and  attainment,  all  are  one,  and  the 
last  word  of  existence  is  solidarity.  And  again, 
immediately  and  proximately,  there  is  benefit  in 
freedom  for  all ;  for  as  each  is  traveling  his  ovn^-u 
road  to  attainment,  each  has  his  own  special  view 
of  the  truth,  each  his  oivn  special  development 
of  the  in-growing  Divine,  and  this  experience  we 
imperatively  need  to  share  to  supplement  our 
own.  It  is  therefore  of  the  first  importance  that 
we  should  not  impose  our  grov/th  on  him,  for 
that  aborts  him,  and  leaves  us  where  w^e  are 
(both  balked  together),  but  that  we  should  aid  and 
encourage  his  enlarge  in  his  own  way,  so  that  he 
may  aid  and  growth  us  by  his  discoveries  and 
conquests.  There  is  infinite  division  of  labor  in 
this  search  for  attainment,  this  struggle  for  the 
ideal,  this  humanity  becoming  God ;  and  V7lioso 
hinders  any  stupidly  stops  himself  and  all.  For 
each  man's  works,  and  discoveries,  and  valor,  and 
eccentricity,  and  peculiarities,  have  value  for  us 


all,   are   a  part  of  our  wealth,  stored  labor  and 
working  capital  —  tools  to  the  wise  hand. 

And  again,  the  very  spirit  of  this  religion  makes 
anything  but  freedom  impossible  ;  for  as  a  religion 
it  is  not  a  creed,  or  a  dogma,  or  a  ritual,  but 
progress,  attainment,  development,  growth,  en- 
largement, expansion  to  the  infinite  ;  and  all  this 
requires  freedom,  fluency,  adaptation,  receptivity, 
and  appreciation  in  their  most  perfect  and  gener- 
ous forms  as  the  very  law  of  growth.  It  is  the 
only  religion  that  is  perfectly  sweet  throughout, 
without  a  terror  or  a  prejudice  or  a  hate.  It  is 
all  "  sweetness  and  light." 

O  jealous  of  freedom  is  the  w^ise 
man  that  he  v/ill  not  bind  himself 
by  any  habit,  good  or  bad,  nor  will 
he  let  any  passion,  not  even  the 
purest  love,  get  the  mastery  over 
his  life.  For  any  passion  or  desire 
becoming  dominant  in  one's  life,  however  good 
in  itself  (and  often  because  of  its  goodness  is  its 
seductive  pov\7er)  is  a  peril  just  in  proportion  to 
its  strength.  It  is  a  stone  on  a  growing  plant, 
an  iron  band  about  a  growing  tree  ;  we  must 
throw  it  off ;  we  must  burst  it,  or  we  shall  never 
attain.  If  any  joy  were  always  joy,  if  any  pleasure 
ever   satisfied,  w^e  should  stand  still,  and  cease 


FREEDOM 


BEAUTIFUL 
DISCON- 
TENT  AND 
THE    SOUL 
SUPREME 


27 


BEAUTIFUL 
DISCON- 
TENT AND 
THE  SOUL 
SUPREME 


iipiring  ta  our  infinite  destiny,  Therefore  ev^ty 
joy  that  is  given  up  to  and  rested  in  satiates  or 
turns  to  nausea  or  pain«  The  infinite  uplift  of 
things  is  against  contentment  in  possession  or  sen- 
sation, and  in  proportion  as  we  are  growing  are  we 
restless,  aspiring,  urged  by  desire  and  ambition. 

Yet  ever  the  extremes  meet  and  the  balance 
holds.  The  man  w^ho  has  rejected  contentment 
in  any  lower  circle  finds  himself  restored  to  a 
serene  peace  in  the  endogenous  energies  of  his 
o-wn  life  and  the  sweep  and  rhythm  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  Great  Content  overcomes  the  need  of 
lesser  contents,  and  includes  all.  The  nature 
that  refuses  to  give  itself  with  utter  abandonment 
to  any  lesser  love,  and  insists  on  rising  above  love 
with  serene  poise,  suddenly  finds  that  for  the  first 
time  has  it  attained  real  lovability ;  that  the  ele- 
ments of  peril  and  of  pain,  before  so  inevitable 
and  acute,  have  nov/  disappeared  from  love  ;  that 
it  is  now  free  to  love  every  one  and  everything, 
without  fear,  and  that  all  loves  nov/  turn  to  it 
with  perfect  trust  and  eager  thirst.  Love,  before 
a  seductive,  deceitful,  and  capricious  tryant,  flat- 
tering and  torturing  by  turns,  now  becomes  a 
glad  and  eager  servant  forever,  on  bended  knee, 
presenting  the  cup  of  clear  joy. 

It  now^  appears  that  the  more  love,  the  more 

28 


ambition,  the  more  desire,  the  miore  passion,  the 
more  experience,  a  man  has,  provided  he  be  above 
them  all,  using  and  not  used  by  them,  the  greater, 
the  more  God-like,  he  becomes,  the  larger  his  life, 
his  power,  helpfulness,  usefulness,  everywhere. 
Instinctively  all  eyes  turn  to  him  ;  he  is  the 
courage  and  hope  of  millions,  for  by  an  obligatory 
inner  necessity  it  is  the  Attained  Man  that  we  are 
all  looking  for.  He  is  the  guaranty  of  our  own 
success.  He  restores  our  faith.  He  is  Saviour, 
Master,  Messiah,  the  Incarnate  God. 

It  was  this  superiority,  this  Soul  Supreme,  this 
Serene  Life,  which  the  ancient  philosophers  all 
contemplated  in  some  form,  and  made  their  dream 
and  ideal,  often  dimly  enough,  but  with  certain 
faith.  And  it  v/as  this  grandeur  of  ideal  and 
attainment  in  them  that  has  fixed  them  like 
mountain  peaks  of  the  Lifted  Land  before  all 
succeeding  ages,  for  v/e  all  have  the  same  yearn- 
ing from  the  same  innate  need.  And  attainment 
is  Happiness  ;  attainment  is  Heaven. 

iT  the  charity  of  this  religion  is 
not  confined  to  persons,  to  creeds, 
to  doctrines  ;  it  extends  also  to 
intentions  and  deeds.  It  is  the 
only  religion  in  the  -world  v/hich 

has  charity  for  evil,  which  hates 
29 


BEAUTIFUL 
DISCON- 
TENT  AND 
THE   SOUL 
SUPREME 


THE   RELI- 
GION   OF 
EMBRACE 
AND   AS- 
PIRATION 


THE    RELI- 
GION OF 
EMBRACE 
AND    AS- 
PIRATION 


OF    IMMOR- 
TALITY 
AND   THE 
GREAT  CON- 
SOLATION 


neither  the  sinner  nor  the  sin.  Recognizing  evil 
as  the  "  dirty  -work  "  of  the  universe,  a  necessary 
part  of  the  great  plan,  it  has  no  hatred  or  bitter- 
ness toward  even  that.  Yet  this  does  not  mean 
that  the  believer  himself  is  to  do  what  he  con- 
siders evil,  or  indulge  in  sin.  There  are  plenty  of 
those  yet  walking  in  darkness  to  do  this  dirty 
vvork.  Higher  souls  who  aspire,  v/ho  are  further 
on  the  path  to  attainment,  vi^ill  avoid  these  things, 
and  live  true  to  their  higher  ideals.  It  is  for  the 
souls  that  delight  in  evil  to  do  it,  for  for  them  it  is 
natural,  for  them  it  is  right ;  but  as  soon  as  they 
perceive  it  as  evil  it  is  no  more  right  for  them  ; 
they  are  to  leave  it  and  go  on  —  for  this  is  evolu- 
tion, this  is  gro-wth. 

Evil  is  good,  but  the  good  is  better. 

HAT  a  ruling  passion,  v^hat  an 
unescapable  longing,  this,  which 
I  all  men  feel,  that  something  of 
\  them,  or  of  their  w^orks,  shall  be 
permanent  and  endure  forever  — 
the  prayer  for  fame,  for  remem- 
brance, for  immortality !  All  religions  are,  in 
somewhat,  the  voice  of  and  answer  to  this  prayer 
for  permanence  in  a  stream  of  change.  And 
no  other  religion,  I  think,  has  ever  offered  so 
sublime  an  answer  to  this  prayer  as  the  Dawn- 


Thought.  Consider  it  —  nothing  is  lost,  nothing 
dies,  nothing  is  forgotten,  nothing  is  unforgiven  ; 
in  the  end  every  evil  is  discovered  good,  every 
weakness  is  revealed  a  strength,  every  mistake 
works  success,  every  failure  acquires  ;  everything 
is  justified.  Your  works  endure,  and  all  v/orks 
are  yours  ;  your  wealth  is  not  to  be  surpassed,  for 
all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  belong  to  you,  are 
you  ;  no  immortality  can  be  greater,  for  you  are 
Life  itself,  Vv^ithout  beginning  or  end.  To  Attain, 
to  be  Conscious-God,  is  to  be  Beauty,  Power, 
Wisdom,  Life,  Love,  Perfection  itself  (for  all 
these  are  interchangeable  terms)  is  to  realize  your 
every  ideal,  longing,  aspiration,  ambition,  in  its 
most  absolute  form  ;  and  this  is  the  goal  before 
you  which  you  cannot  escape  if  you  would,  your 
certain  and  inevitable  destiny. 

UT  to  understand  the  Dawn- 
Thought  and  its  corollaries  re- 
quires the  rare  pow^er  of  both-see- 
ing. The  average  mind  is  not  thus 
philosophic  and  possessed  of  the 
dual  vision  necessary  to  see  both 
sides  of  the  shield  at  once,  day  and  night  at  the 
same  time,  and  to  understand  hovv;'  extremes 
coexist,  meet,  and  embrace.  Therefore  this  re- 
ligion   cannot    easily  be    comprehended  by  th^ 

31 


OF   IMMOR- 
TALITY 
AND   THE 
GREAT  CON- 
SOLATION 


BOTH- 
SEEING 
AND    THE 
USE  OF  THE 
UNDER- 
LOOK 


BOTH- 
SEEING 
AND    THE 
USE  OF  THE 
UNDER- 
LOOK 


masses.  To  them  a  paradox  is  a  manifest  lie,  or 
an  absurdity ;  your  Pantheism  to  them  is  profa- 
nation, your  affirmation  of  Self-inclusiveness  is 
Atheism,  your  God-in-all  and  God-becoming  are 
blasphemy.  Such  minds  m.ust  move  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  illusions  and  deceptions  to  have 
moral  impulse^  They  cannot  shoot  unless  they 
first  shut  one  eye.  They  cannot  love  the  good 
unless  you  ailov/  them  to  hate  the  evil ;  they 
cannot  choose  the  truth  unless  horrified  at  lies ; 
they  cannot  enjoy  the  light  v^ithout  dreading  the 
dark.  They  are  not  capable  of  faith  without 
abominating  unbelief;  to  love  virtue  they  must 
be  rancorous  against  the  sinner  and  the  sin ;  in 
order  to  rise  to  the  spiritual  they  must  despise 
the  animal.  Their  unspoken  faith  is  that  a  good 
lover  must  be  a  good  hater,  and  they  must 
have  something  to  fight  or  their  good  v^orks  are 
flavorless. 

There  is  alvv^ays  a  time  in  the  soul's  upward 
march  v^hen  the  sharpest  contrasts  are  needed  to 
emphasize  perception,  when  partisanship,  big- 
otry, prejudice,  are  inevitable  and  necessary. 
Therefore  the  Underlook  must  be  for  av/hile. 
There  is  more  room  for  pious  frauds  than  Protes- 
tants recognize  in  the  moral  evolution  of  man  ; 
and  the  illusion  that  evil  is  altogether  evil  must 


for  a  time  stand.  Therefore  even  intolerance, 
bigotry,  persecution,  are  to  be  accepted,  for  they 
also  do  Divine  -work  and  liberate  the  soul.  We 
must  accept  all,  respect  all,  be  reconciled.  But 
this  can  only  come  in  the  good  time  of  our  growth. 
A  green  fruit  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  ripe. 
Only  when  we  attain  the  Overlook  are  w^e  high 
enough  to  perceive  that  w^hen  the  Maker  said  he 
had  seen  all  his  works  and  they  w^ere  "very 
good,"  he  meant  all  and  not  a  part  —  included 
sinners  with  saints,  sins  w^ith  virtues,  crimes  with 
liberations  —  all  were  planned,  intended,  foreseen, 
approved.     This  is  a  hard  saying. 

T  will  be  manifest  by  this  time  that 
in  this  view  God  is  a  synthesis  ; 
Truth  is  a  paradox,  expressed  in 
paradoxes;  the  Universe  is  a  bal- 
ance of  opposites ;  Life  an  agree- 
ment of  contradictions.  This  ex- 
plains at  once  why  existence  has  al'ways  been  such 
a  riddle  and  a  mystery ;  why  every  doctrine  is  so 
plausible  and  none  can  be  proved  to  the  end ; 
why  logic  always  brings  one  to  the  reductio  ad 
absurdum  ;  why  all  faiths  are  so  stubbornly  held, 
yet  not  one  explains  to  a  finish,  or  satisfies 
the  deep  inquiry. 


BOTH- 
SEEING 
AND    THE 
USE  OF  THE 
UNDER- 
LOOK 


A    UNI- 
VERSE   OF 
CONTRA- 
DICTIONS 


33 


THE    TWO 
OF  THE  ONE 


N  this  view  we  see  that  there  are 
two  great  manifestations  of  the 
^\»/T  ^^0(1  One,  by  which  alone,  their  opposi- 
■^^\j  ^-^vl'l  tion  and  interaction,  is  the  exist- 
ence of  the  moving  universe  made 
possible.  These  appear,  disap- 
pear, and  reappear  in  everything,  —  in  every  indi- 
vidual, group,  and  class.  By  the  one  force  the 
Center  binds  everything  to  himself,  so  that  he  is 
All  and  in  all,  and  nothing  can  fall  away  or  escape  ; 
by  the  other  he  holds  objects,  individuals,  away 
from  himself,  in  apparent  separateness,  that  he 
may  use  them  and  act  upon  them,  that  Motion 
may  be.  The  degree  of  their  union  and  conscious- 
ness of  their  union  with  him  is  the  degree  of  their 
strength,  beauty,  virtue,  attraction,  wisdom,  hap- 
piness ;  the  degree  of  their  separateness  is  the 
measure  of  their  weakness,  ugliness,  evil,  repul- 
siveness,  ignorance,  misery.  Everything  in  the 
universe,  least  or  greater,  expresses  and  reveals 
this  great  fact ;  and  that  is  why  all  religions 
naturally  express  themselves  in  similes,  allego- 
ries, fables,  why  all  religions  are  poetic,  and  w^hy 
poetry  so  charms  and  delights  all  minds,  savage 
and  civilized.  It  explains  why  an  ingenious  mind 
can  use  any  natural  phenomenon  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  truth,  and  why  an  equally  ingenious  mind 

Z\ 


can  turn  any  figure  or  comparison  against  itself,  THE  TWO 
and  make  it  prove  too  much.  To  a  certain  extent  OF  THE  ONE 
all  things  co-operate  and  resemble  each  other,  to 
a  certain  extent  each  is  unique  and  a  contradic- 
tion of  others.  Communism  makes  all  things 
belong  to  all,  but  Individualism  apportions  to 
each  his  own  ;  Egoism  proves  all  things  center  in 
self,  but  Altruism  enlarges  self  to  include  all ; 
Love  is  the  uniting  force  of  the  universe,  but 
Liberty  is  the  dividing  force.  Centripetal  and 
centrifugal  hold  the  heavenly  bodies  in  their 
orbits.  Aggregation  no  sooner  begins  than  dis- 
tribution attends.  We  are  gregarious,  we  make 
conventions,  we  establish  customs,  w^e  imitate, 
we  discipline,  we  vow,  —  it  is  all  of  no  use,  —  we 
are  a  handful  of  water,  a  netful  of  sand,  and  slide 
and  glide  away  in  all  directions,  like  a  brood  of 
quails,  each  for  his  own.  All  the  marriage-cus- 
toms, all  the  passionate  love-clingings,  cannot 
make  two  souls  utterly  one  in  this  world,  or  two 
bodies  grow  together.  Every  love  has  its  heart 
of  disappointment.  All  the  longings  of  loneliness, 
all  the  yearnings  of  sympathy,  cannot  enable  any 
two  human  beings  to  understand  each  other. 
Each  man,  as  each  nation,  has  a  tongue  peculiar, 
that  cannot  be  translated.  And  yet,  if  we  rashly 
insist  on  our  separateness  as  absolutes  if  we  turn 

35 


THE    TWO  the  backs  of  our  hearts  on  the  race,  we  starve 
OF  THE  ONE  at   the    soul,    we    shrivel    like    desiccated   fruits. 
E  pluribus  unum  is  the  universe. 

In  everything,  physical,  spiritual,  these  two 
great  forces  vindicate  themselves  and  have  their 
own  —  persuade  and  dissuade,  assert  and  deny, 
attract  and  repulse,  compel  and  repel,  unite  and 
divide,  and  this  not  only  in  alternation,  but  at  the 
same  time.  Everything  shall  feed  you,  but  noth- 
ing satisfy  your  hunger. 

0  VE  being  the  uniting  force  of  the 
universe,    the    attraction    to    the 
Center,  we   no   sooner  feel   love 
toward  another  than  our  whole 
nature  is  stirred  and  inspired  by 
a  great  joy  and  power ;  we  are 
coming  closer  to  the  Great  Magnet,  we  receive 
God   into   ourselves,   and  becoming  god-like  v»7e 
inspire   the    god-like    in    our   lovers.      It   is   the 
manifest  Divine  in  us  that  they  love,  and  they 
also,  by  reason  of  their  love  receiving  God  into 
themselves,    appear    perfect    to    us.      And    this 
is   no   deception,   no   illusion,  but   a   beatific   in- 
carnation   of    the    Best.      And    for    this    reason 
love   is    the    divinest,    the   most    uplifting    influ- 
ence  in   our  lives.      And  this  is  \Aiy  seers   say 
•*  love  is  life,"  and  speak  of  "  saving  love,"  and 

3G 


OF   LOVE 

THAT 

HOLDS  AND 

LIBERATES 


insist  that  *'  God  is  lave,*'  And  herein  is  anothir 
mystery  explained  :  The  "  conjugal,"  the  '«  mono- 
gamic "  impulse  leads  us  to  love  but  one,  to 
center  all  our  affections  on  one  object.  This  is 
because  God  is  one,  and  our  love,  at  bottom,  is 
not  love  to  an  individual,  who  is  but  an  evanes- 
cent, imperfect  representative,  and  really,  at  the 
deepest,  a  fiction,  but  to  The  Individual,  it  is  the 
God-becoming  instinct  in  us.  But  because  the  in- 
dividual in  \A;'hom  we  for  the  time  being  see  the 
Perfect  visioned  is  not  the  Whole,  but  imperfect, 
we  are  never  satisfied  by  the  one  love,  hovv'ever 
beautiful ;  we  are  never  satisfied,  and  no  matter 
what  our  vows,  our  sacraments,  our  rebukes  of 
conscience,  our  dream  of  fidelity,  our  yearnings 
for  constancy,  our  fancy  will  stray,  our  love  will 
go  out  to  other  beautiful  souls  and  bodies  in 
whom  the  Divine  is  also  revealed.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  through  the  "  Grand  Passion,"  the  centering 
of  our  greatest  and  richest  love  in  one,  that  we  are 
best  able  to  normally  love  these  others,  and  bring 
them  into  normal  love  relations  with  ourselves  ; 
and  herein  is  the  mystery  and  contradiction  again. 
Almost  all  the  battles  of  affection  are  over  this 
unrecognized  la^A7.  But  we  may  hide  the  fact 
even  from  ourselves,  we  may  deny  it,  we  may 
crucify  the  flesh  and  starve  the  soul,  but  the  fact 


OF    LOVE 
THAT 

HOLDS  AND 
LIBERATES 


t-i 


OF    LOVE 

THAT 

HOLDS  AND 

LIBERATES 


GENIUS 

AND    THE 

IDEAL 


remains,  and  in  the  judgment  of  the  Attained 
Vision  no  soul  can  say  with  truth,  "  I  have  loved 
but  one."  And  this  is  because  the  law  is  that 
the  Divine,  vyho  is  in  all,  is  to  be  recognized  and 
loved  in  all,  or  loss  of  growth  and  pain  is  the 
penalty.  But  neither  woman  nor  man  can  satisfy 
or  appease  ;  only  to  love  more  and  more  until  we 
Attain  —  that  can  satisfy/. 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best, 
All  things  both  great  and  small : 
For  the  dear  God,  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 


vfe  call  the  "ideal"  is  this 
perception  of,  this  thirst  for,  this 
undying  aspiration  and  uplift 
toward  the  Divine  in  us.  That 
which  we  love,  that  which  is  the 
ruling  passion  of  our  life,  w^e 
straightway  "  idealize  ;  "  that  is,  vs^e  imagine  it  in 
a  more  perfect  form  than  any  we  have  actually 
seen  or  realized,  and  this  ideal  indicates  the  line 
of  our  growth.  What  this  really  means  is,  that 
on  this  line  of  our  aspiration  and  yearning  we 
become  intuitional,  and  to  som.e  extent  really 
apprehend  the  perfect  as  regards  that  attribute. 
We  become  intuitional,  and  acquire  a  power, 
knowledge,  and  "  genius,"  as  we  name  it,  on  this 


our  idealized  line,   ■which   appears    to    transcend    GENIUS 

our  ordinary  faculties  and  confess  a  sixth  sense.     AND    THE 

We  recognize  all  this  in  great  men,  and  expect    IDEAL 

them  to  do  deeds  and  execute  works  in  a  sort  of 

divine  frenzy,  accomplishing  that  -which  surprises 

themselves,  and  the  power  and  process  of  which 

they  cannot  explain.    But,  though  not  so  apparent, 

precisely  the  same  thing  occurs  in  small  men,  to 

each  in  the  line  of  his  own  genius.    The  mechanic 

builds  wiser  than  he  knows  ;  golden  words  drop 

from  the  humblest  lips  ;  orders  fly  from  the  lips 

of  the  shipmaster  in  the  storm  which  he  cannot 

justify  to  himself,  but  they  save  the  ship.     Every 

student  has  moments  of  illuminated  perception 

of  lav/  and  truth,  every  poet  v/rites  vv^ords  which 

he  does  not  understand,  yet  v\7hich  teach  him  in 

his  cooler  moments.     And  the  more  we  grow  the 

more  the  ideal  enlarges  before  us  ;   we  increase 

our  growth  in  its  image,  and  receive   more   and 

more  the  pov/er  v/hich  attends  ;  and  this  forever, 

till  Attainment,  with  all  power,  comes. 

T   excites  much  indignation   in  the     OF    HERO- 
minds  of  many  good    people    that     "WORSHIP 
men   so   persistently  admire  great    AND 
conquerors,     pirates,     courtesans,     DEMIGODS 
svt'indlers,    and    other   workers    of 
evil.      An  evidence   of  "total    de- 
39 


OF  HERO-    pravit^,"  this  has  been  conslderedj  but  in  fact 

WORSHIP    it  is  only  one  expression  of  the  outreach  to  the 

AND     Divine.    Very  low  natures,  "whose  legitimate  work 

DEMIGODS     is  evil,  no  doubt  admire  the  evil  in  these  strong 

ones  ;  but  the  fact  that  all  natures,  high  and  lo^v 

alike,  feel  the   same   impulse  to  admire,  proves 

that  there  is  somewhat  there  for  all.     Now,  the 

simple  fact  is,  that  all  "  great,"  all  strong,  able 

natures  have  in  some  direction  a  larger  share  of 

the  divine  force  than  the  lesser  ones  around  them. 

And  it  is  this   godlike   faculty,  w^hatever  it  may 

be,  in   them,  that  we   inevitably   and   rightfully 

admire,    no    matter   what   evil,    or   mistakes,    or 

v^eakness,  in  other  directions,  may  happen  to  be 

bound  up  in  that  particular  nature  with  it. 

WE    FIND     |^^^^^S|VERY  nature,  like  a  root  pushed 

OUR    OW^N     Viv^A^i^^^ffM  through  the  soil,  selects  its  own 

nutriment,  and  rejects  all  elements 
which    do    not    feed    it.      So   the 
higher  nature,  that  w^hich  has  out- 
grow^n  the  plane  of  evil,  cannot  be 
smirched    or    befouled   by   any   influence    or   en- 
vironment.    With  a  sure  instinct  it  will  find  its 
own,  and  thrive  on  the  good,  the  true,  and  the 
beautiful  where  you  might  suppose  one  morsel  of 
such  manna  could  not  be  found. 

We  have  only  to  stand  aside  and  see  the  salva- 
40 


tion.      The    soul  that  is   going  home  cannot  be 
diverted  from  the  path. 

"  For  it  is  God  which  Avorketh  in  you  both  to 
will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure." 
?f^fJS^--a  3|LL  forms,  all  ranks,  castes,  artifi- 
cialities, "nobilities,"  have  grown 
'i  out  of  the  many-sided  push  toward 
'^"  the  Divine.  Longing  to  be  godlike, 
by  innate  and  irresistible  impulse, 
men  in  their  ignorance  did  not 
realize  that  they  must  grow,  but  impatiently  en- 
deavored by  outvv^ard  forms  and  images  to  be  that 
which  man  can  only  become  by  inward-outward 
evolution.  Because  the  Supreme  had  pow^er  of 
life  and  death,  men  supposed  they  could  become 
like  gods  by  assuming  despotic  control  of  their 
fellov/s  ;  because  God  was  majestic,  they  theatri- 
cally endeavored  to  be  like  him  by  putting  on 
metal  crowns  and  fur  robes  and  w^aving  sym- 
bols ;  they  tried  to  be  noble  by  wearing  the  name 
and  assuming  the  virtue  as  hereditary  ;  they  sub- 
stituted fashion  w^here  they  needed  taste,  polite 
forms  for  courtesy,  cosmetics  for  beauty,  excite- 
ment and  intoxication  for  gladness,  customs  and 
la-ws  for  spontaneous  restraints,  affectation  for 
grace,  hypocrisy  for  virtue,  ritualism  for  religion. 


WE    FIND 
OUR    OWN 


THE   GENE- 
SIS  OF  THE 
UNGENU- 
INE 


41 


THE    REAL 


LL  this  was  the  sincerest  flattery 
of  the  genuine,  and  kept  vivid  the 
faith  in  it  by  symbols,  as  it  were, 
and  by  pure  reaction  ;  for  it  is 
utterly  impossible  to  kill  out  of 
men  the  intuition  that  there  is  a 
real  majesty,  a  real  nobility  and  aristocracy  of 
manhood,  a  legitimate  leadership  of  the  wise  and 
able,  a  genuine  courtesy,  a  sincere  virtue,  a  true 
taste,  a  Pow^er  over  all  and  through  all.  You 
may  show  them  the  counterfeit  a  million  times, 
and.svt^ear  there  is  no  other  coin,  but  they  refuse 
to  be  cheated  ;  they  may  even  profess  to  believe 
it ;  they  may  persuade  themselves  in  much  pain 
that  they  do  believe  it  —  it  is  useless  —  they  do 
not  believe  it,  nor  can  they.  Could  they  perfectly 
so  persuade  themselves  they  ■w.'-ould  die  ;  and  even 
a  partial  persuasion  leads  to  settled  sadness,  pain, 
pessimism,  or  suicide.  Life  is  faith  in  the  genu- 
ine ;  and  faith  in  the  genuine  expresses  itself  in 
living  your  own  life  frankly  and  trustfully,  as  an 
animal  acts,  as  a  tree  grows. 

The  real  Kings  wear  no  crowns,  the  true  nobles 
have  no  titles,  genuine  courtesy  has  no  forms, 
sincere  virtue  recks  not  of  moral  rules,  wisdom 
is  above  custom,  liberty  drops  law,  love  knows 
only  its  object,  genius  ignores  canons,  the  godly 

42 


man  has  no  dogma,  creed,  Bible,  ritual,  or  temple.     THE    REAL 
The  Real  is  tolerant  and  inclusive ;  God  is  not 
a  party,  a  hostile  fragment. 

I  remember  that  Carpenter,  in  his  "  Civilization, 
its  Cause,  and  Cure,"  declares  the  sickness  of 
mankind  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  men  are  at  war 
with  themselves,  while  in  nature  every  life  fol- 
lows its  own  laws  w^ithout  self-reproach.  This 
was  a  dark  saying  to  m.e,  but  my  Dawn-Thought 
has  made  it  light ;  nevertheless,  this  inner  war 
of  a  man  is  also  a  necessary  part  of  his  evolution 
to  a  new  and  higher  unity  and  self-peace.  As  a 
man  enlarges  from  the  Dawn-Thought,  he  drops 
all  forms  and  rules  and  "  principles  "  as  outworn 
tools,  and  follo'ws  reverently  all  the  inner  im- 
pulses and  restraints,  living  his  own  life  as 
frankly  as  a  bird,  "  letting  himself  go  "  as  a  brook 
runs,  in  peace  with  the  eternal  v^orld-currents 
and  his  ow^n  soul.  The  days  of  struggle  are  over, 
he  blooms  like  a  flow^er,  he  bears  fruit  like  a  tree 
—  God  is  in  him,  and  all  the  v/orld  is  with  him. 

HERE  is  no  more  war  with  con-  EMANUEL 
science,  but  life  and  growth  only, 
and  this  is  heaven  within.  Jesus 
is  a  parable  of  the  incarnate  Di- 
vine ;  we  shall  all  be  Christ's  be- 
fore Ascension,  we  shall  all  be 
43 


EMANUEi^ 


THE    PATH     E 


Buddhas  before  Nirvana ;  Messiah-ship  is  our 
common  ripening  —  the  God-man  we  shall  each 
become  before  the  man  becomes  God. 

We  are  all  to  preach  gospels ;  we  shall  each 
add  our  testament  to  the  Universal  Bible  ;  every 
one  shall  rise  from  the  dead,  and  sit  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Parent,  and  be  one  with  him  in  wis- 
dom and  power. 

This  purer  part  of  the  One,  from  which  we  all 
proceed,  and  to  which  we  all  return,  is  the  Parent, 
the  Father-Mother ;  this  sympathetic  force,  flow- 
ing through  all  things,  and  binding  all  in  unity, 
is  the  "  Holy  Spirit,"  the  Health  (it  would  indeed 
be  "  unpardonable  sin  "  to  sin  against  this,  if  that 
were  possible,  because  to  do  that  would  be  to 
drop  out  of  the  currents  of  eternal  life) ;  and  the 
Messiah,  which  each  soul  becomes  when  it  nears 
Nirvana,  is  the  Child,  the  "  Son."  And  these 
three  are  one  because  all  things  are  One. 

ND  the  truth  concerning  the  Path 
appears  to  be,  that  that  part  of  the 
Divine  v/hich  is  to  constitute  an  in- 
dividual soul  (a  *'  part,"  yet  never 
disconnected)  is  first  projected  as 
a  germ,  one  might  say,  into  the 
lowest  form ;  and  from  this  grows,  expands,  en- 
larges, evolves,  by  love  and  war,  by  accretion,  and 

44 


disintegration ;  becomes  increasingly  conscious,  THE  PATH 
as  it  passes  from  change  to  change,  transforma- 
tion to  transformation  ;  death  after  death,  and 
birth  after  birth,  through  all  the  forms  and  planes 
of  mineral,  vegetable,  animal,  and  human  life, 
until  finally  emerging  into  the  absolute  Conscious- 
ness and  Identity  of  Nirvana.  On  its  v/ay  having 
every  experience,  knowing  every  weakness  and 
strength,  every  degradation  and  glory,  every  crime 
and  virtue,  every  sin  and  shame,  every  innocence 
and  delight,  every  sorrow^  and  pain,  every  master- 
ship and  slavery,  yet  in  not  exactly  the  same  way 
as  any  other  soul,  until  all  is  known,  all  experi- 
enced, and  the  circle  is  complete.  At  the  last  po- 
etic justice  is  meted  out,  everything  is  explained, 
justified,  forgiven,  appreciated,  accepted,  approved. 
"We  may  reflect  that  every  chemic  force,  every 
clod,  every  crystal,  every  bit  of  protoplasm,  an- 
imalcule, -worm,  flow^er,  tree,  bird,  beast,  is  on  the 
road,  equally  with  ourselves,  and  will  reach  home, 
inevitably,  by  the  same  eternal  necessity. 

CONCEIVE  that  souls  do  not  re-  BLENDING 
main  separate  through  all  the 
changes  of  the  path.  Indeed,  what 
philosophers  and  scientists  call  the 
"  atom  "  is  probably  the  soul-germ 
at  its  very  beginning  on  the  upw^ard 
45 


BLENDING  course.  From  thencefor\A7ard  its  progress  is  a 
continuous  process  of  transformation  and  enlarge- 
ment by  blending  and  accretion.  We  know  that 
all  the  higher  organisms  are  compound,  and  are 
rather  confederations  of  individuals  than  indi- 
viduals simple.  Indeed,  above  the  atom  we  know 
not  -where  to  find  the  simple  individual,  for  even 
the  molecule  is  not  simple.  Each  cell,  each  cor- 
puscle of  the  blood,  each  spermatozoan  is  a 
living  and  somewhat  separate  animal  in  the 
human  body ;  the  ganglia  and  nerve  centers  seem 
relatively  independent  intelligences.  The  pro- 
cesses of  nutrition  teach  us  the  same  lesson  of 
constant  fusion  and  transformation  of  separates 
into  one.  If  this  is  true  in  the  visible,  I  appre- 
hend it  is  equally  true  in  the  realm  of  the  in- 
visible, and  that  spiritual  growth  and  enlargement 
is  greatly  a  process  of  fusion  and  union  of  lesser 
lives  into  greater  ones ;  this  being  a  type,  as  it 
w^ere,  of  Nirvana,  not  a  loss  of  individuality,  but 
an  enlargement  of  individuality  ;  each  life  coming 
into  the  union  not  feeling  itself  lost,  but  simply 
increased  by  the  pow^ers  and  experience  of  the 
ally.  Even  two  human  souls,  perhaps  more,  I 
apprehend,  often  unite  for  a  new  incarnation.  As 
the  final  destiny  and  perfection  of  the  soul  is 
enlargement  into  conscious  identity  v^dth  all  ex- 

46 


istences,  all  this  seems  perfectly  logical  and  accord-  BLENDING 
ant.  Nothing  has  to  be  done  but  to  break  down  the 
partition  of  apparent  separateness  ai>d  two  souls 
at  once  know  their  real  identity.  Possibly  this 
union  often  takes  place  between  tv/o  (a  male  and  a 
female)  disembodied  souls  w^ho  were  lovers  in  this 
life — truly  wedded  they  fuse  into  one  for  a  nev/  em- 
bodiment.    These  are  deep,  suggestive  problems. 

Society  is  an  individual  composed  of  individ- 
uals, w^ho  again  are  composed  of  lesser  indi- 
viduals, and  so  on  almost  ad  infinitum.  And  the 
Universe  is  a  great  individual  composed  of  all. 

And  we  constantly  see  great  souls  draw  lesser 
souls  into  their  current  with  an  irresistible  pas- 
sion of  devotion. 

And  so  by  conquest  and  cannibalism,  by  love 
and  war,  by  eating,  drinking,  earning,  learning, 
begging,  stealing,  sympathizing,  accepting,  the 
universal  march  of  enlargement  goes  on.  Yet 
ever  disintegration  attends  and  fights  against, 
and  the  imperfectly  mated  fall  apart  and  oppose, 
till  true  fitness  is  acquired,  and  then  they  blend 
triumphantly  in  attained  enlargement. 

Sex  is  the  spiritual  and  physical  line  of  cleavage 
and  therefore  of  conjunction  ;  here  each  matches 
and  fits  the  other ;  they  separated  here ;  here 
they  long  to  return. 

47 


CHARAC- 
TER 


THE    VA- 
RIETY  AND 
UNIFORM- 
ITY IN  UNI- 
VERSAL 
LIFE 


N  this  vie%v  the  whole  scheme 
of  things  becomes  a  school  for 
character.  It  is  for  this  that  the 
universe  exists,  and  the  revolv- 
ing w^orlds  plot  and  plan.  And 
Character  is  only  another  word 
for  the  attained  Ideal. 

ND  as  we  cannot  imagine  the  Cen- 
ter as  a  mere  impassivity,  and  as 
this  method  of  projecting  himself 
into  partial  and  apparently  sepa- 
rate forms  is  the  only  method  by 
which  action  becomes  possible  to 
him,  it  is  plain  that  he  has  followed,  and  will 
follow,  this  method  through  all  eternity.  But 
all  things  point  to  the  Divine  as  perfect  in  unity, 
yet  infinite  in  variety.  Both  these  are  exhibited 
in  his  method  of  action.  Through  all  the  universe, 
in  every  form  of  existence,  we  perceive  the  same 
methods  infinitely  diversified.  Every  soul  has 
the  same  experiences  as  other  souls  in  general 
features,  yet  not  exactly  the  same  either  in  detail 
or  in  the  ensemble.  Variation  always  vindicates 
itself  to  the  discerning  eye  equally  with  unifor- 
mity. Here,  again,  extremes  meet  and  are  rec- 
onciled. It  is  in  this  infinite  variation  of  works, 
and  yet  consistency  w^ith  self,  that  we  may  sup- 

48 


pose  the  Divine  pleasure  to  consist  —  avoiding 
equally,  thereby,  monotony  and  chaos.  The  ka- 
leidoscope revolves  forever,  and  forever  the  new 
combinations  appear.  And  it  is  this  consistency 
of  the  Divine  character  and  this  uniformity  of  the 
Divine  methods  which  make  science  possible  and 
constitute  the  "laws  of  Nature."  And  it  is  this 
infinite  variation  which  makes  the  study  of  nature 
perpetually  a  surprise  and  delight  even  to  the 
most  habituated. 

T  is  because  man,  of  all  creatures, 
is  nearest  to  the  Center  that  he  is 
said  to  be  made  in  the  image  of 
God ;  and  because  all  other  crea- 
tures are  on  the  path,  coming 
toward  man  and  God,  we  perceive 
expressions,  movements,  some- 
what resembling  and  prophesying  ourselves.  The 
human  in  them  is  germinal,  latent,  becoming.  All 
nature  is  a  prophecy  of  man  ;  man  is  a  symbol 
and  epitome  of  God. 

HIS  should  be  observed  by  those 
who  are  inclined  to  regard  this 
doctrine  as  identical  with  The- 
osophy  —  that  it  differs  from  it  in 
two  remarkable  points  :  First,  its 
Nirvana  is  enlargement  and  per- 

49 


THE   VA- 
RIETY   AND 
UNIFORM- 
ITY IN  UNI- 
VERSAL 
LIFE 


THE    IMAGE 


LIVING  AND 
OUTLIVING 


LIVING  AND 
OUTLIVING 


THE 
SERVICE  OF 
REVER- 
SION 


fection  of  self-consciousness,  instead  of  annihila- 
tion, absorption,  or  loss  ;  Second,  it  differs 
fundamentally  in  this,  that  instead  of  teaching 
asceticism,  quietude,  repression  of  passion,  the 
mortification  of  the  flesh,  and  the  ignoring  of  ex- 
ternal things,  the  Dawn-Thought  teaches  growth, 
expansion,  appreciation,  reception,  blooming,  and 
fruiting  to  the  infinite.  Here,  in  this  last,  is  dif- 
ference tremendous  and  vital.  In  Theosophy 
you  are  taught  to  attain  the  Divine  by  concen- 
trated culture  of  one  part  of  your  complex  nature, 
and  by  systematically  dw^arfing  and  starving  all 
else  —  as  though  God  hated  somewhat  of  himself, 
and  could  not  be  at  peace  with  any,  unless  they 
joined  in  his  warfare  —  but  in  Dawn-Thinking 
you  rise  and  overcome  simply  by  the  natural 
process  of  living  fully  and  thus  outliving,  as  a 
child  its  milk-teeth,  a  serpent  his  slough.  Living 
and  Outliving,  that  expresses  it.  Until  you  have 
learned  the  one  lesson  fully  you  are  never  ready 
for  a  new  one. 

DO  not  suppose  that  all  progres- 
sion on  the  path  is  direct  and  con- 
tinuous—  there  are  periods  of 
pause,  of  reversion,  of  decadence. 
But  these,  too,  serve.  Sleep  is 
not  lost  time.  Energy  is  stored  ii 
50 


times  of  quiet,  in  winters,  fallows,  dammed-up 
streams.  The  lazy  beasts  have  the  most  tre- 
mendous power  in  times  of  needed  effort.  Re- 
action often  carries  farther  forw^ard  than  direct 
action.  Haply  the  Tzar  does  as  much  for  liberty 
by  creating  the  Nihilist  as  the  Nihilist  does  by 
killing  the  Tzar. 

HETHER  we  say  Jove,  or  Zeus, 
Brahma,  Jehovah,  Allah,  the 
Great  Spirit,  the  Infinite,  the  In- 
clusive, the  Real,  the  Creator, 
the  Center,  the  Sphere,  the  Uni- 
verse, the  One,  the  Unknown, 
the  Divine,  the  Ideal,  the  Higher-Self,  the  Grand- 
Man,  the  Over-Soul,  the  Ego,  the  Parent,  Nature, 
Heaven,  Wisdom,  Power,  Beauty,  Goodness, 
God  —  we  say,  I  apprehend,  the  same  thing.  For 
these  are  all  interchangeable  terms,  and  refer 
alike  to  that  Being,  that  Essence,  that  Only  Ex- 
istence, who  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  Whole, 
and  the  Circle.  These  names,  and  countless 
hundreds  more,  are  only  symbols,  clumsy  human 
attempts  to  describe  and  bring  before  the  mind, 
by  w^ord  or  phrase,  in  -whole  or  in  part,  that  power 
and  mystery  which  all  feel  at  the  heart  of  things 
—  that  consciousness  which  none  may  escape, 
yet  which  is  ever  unknown  and  apparently  un- 

51 


THE    SER- 
VICE OF  RE- 
VERSION 


GOD-NAMES 


GOD-NAMES 


AT-ONE- 
MENT 


knovi^able.  And  for  this  every  man  has  some 
name,  after  the  fashion  of  his  thought.  Whether 
the  Atheist  says  Nature,  or  the  devotee  says  Lord 
Jesus,  they  both  speak  of  the  same  thing,  they 
lay  hold,  each  from  another  side,  of  the  same 
great  matter,  which  neither  understands.  Yet 
every  man  feels  somewhat,  and,  so  far  as  he  feels, 
he  speaks  a  Name  to  describe  the  greatest  thing 
in  his  thought.  Each  man  makes  his  god  in  his 
o^vn  image ;  for  really  his  true  Self  and  God  are 
one,  and  as  his  self-consciousness  enlarges  his 
vision  of  the  Divine  enlarges.  The  gods  live  and 
die,  but  the  Fact  remains. 

Only  in  the  light  of  Pantheism  does  the  wonder- 
ful significance  of  such  old  terms  as  the  Be- 
ginning and  the  End,  The  Great  I  Am,  become 
fully  clear  to  us. 

HIS  is  Heaven,  this  is  Attainment, 
this  is   Nirvana,   this   is   the    Re- 
conciliation,  to  lose  all    sense  of 
separateness,  to  enlarge  into  iden- 
tity w^ith  the  All,  to  be  in  every- 
thing and  to  be  everything. 
Now  the  atonement  formerly  w^as  understood 
to  be  the  at-one-ment,  as  the  etymology  of  the 
word  reveals.     In  the  Christian  mythus  God  and 
man  became  one,  at-one,  in  the  God-Man,  Christ- 

52 


Jesus.  But  this  Dawn-Thought  of  mine  is  alto- 
gether the  at-one-ment ;  it  is  that  and  that  only, 
the  reconciliation  and  perceived  unity  of  all  things. 
^n^^^^^^ST  would  be  reasonably  expected  of 
a  true  and  divinely  constituted 
religion,  that  on  its  essential,  or 
hope  and  cheer  giving,  side  it  would 
be  so  simple  that  the  merest  sav- 
age might  feel  it  out  by  instinct, 
the  merest  child  could  understand  enough  to  be 
glad,  while  in  its  philosophical,  or  explanatory, 
side  it  would  take  hold  on  the  deepest  facts  of  life 
and  experience,  and  open  endless  vistas  of  mys- 
tery, search,  and  wonder  to  the  profoundest  intel- 
lect. Both  these  requisites  are  realized,  in  their 
extreme  form,  in  the  Da-wn-Thought.  In  it 
extremes  of  simplicity  and  mystery,  of  common- 
sense  and  paradox,  meet. 

HE  Dawn-Thought  is  ever  a  dawn- 
ing to  all  who  hold  it.  Forever, 
as  the  soul  advances,  grow^s,  and 
enlarges,  a  new  day  seems  to  be 
breaking  just  ahead,  the  face  is 
toward  the  East,  and  the  glory 
and  the  vigor  of  the  morning  is  over  all.  To  the 
budding,  grow^ing  soul  the  eyes  are  ever  opening, 
as  if  from  sleep,  the  senses  are  aw^aking  to  new 

53 


AT-ONE- 
MENT 

SATISFAC- 
TION   IN 
DAWN- 
THINKING 


THE    DAWN 


THE    DAWN 


GOOD   AND 

EVIL   IN 

THE 

PARTIAL 


things,  there  is  perpetual  Dawn,  Sunrise,  Morning, 
Youth,  Spring,  the  push  and  rise  and  glamour 
of  a  new  life. 

F  the  theory  of  evil  in  the  Dawn- 
Thought  be  correct  —  that  it  ori- 
ginates in  partialness,  in  incom- 
pleteness, and  pertains  to  that  by 
inevitable  necessity,  then,  theo- 
retically, if  one  knew  nothing  of 
actual  life,  it  would  have  to  be  inferred  that 
every  thing  (for  every  thing  is  but  a  part,  a  frag- 
ment) would  bear  its  inevitable  fruit  of  evil  in  the 
shape  of  failure,  or  disappointment,  or  pain,  or 
unfitness  of  some  sort.  And,  conversely,  if  the 
Dawn-Thought  theory  be  right  that  God  is  good 
and  all  is  God,  then  each  part  fnust  have  a  part 
of  the  divine  goodness  in  itself,  and  possess  a 
certain  relation  of  fitness  to  other  things,  and 
must  bear  its  inevitable  fruit  of  joy,  benefit, 
success,  pleasure.  And  this  theoretical  is  found 
demonstrable  in  the  actual.  To  the  perpetual 
puzzle  of  religionist  and  moralist,  it  has  always 
been  observed  that  vices,  crimes,  sins,  -worked 
out,  in  spite  of  themselves  and  their  condemna- 
tion, a  certain  good  ;  and  that  pious,  virtuous,  and 
kindly-intentioned  deeds  quite  often  brought  dis- 
aster, and  never  produced  the  all-around  success 

54 


and  joy  and  good-results  so  confidently  expected 
of  them.  In  brief,  because  each  thing  is  a  frag- 
ment of, the  Whole  (which  is  perfect)  nothing 
whatever  is  wholly  false  or  bad  ;  and,  because 
each  thing  is  a  fragment,  nothing  can  possess 
that  perfect  good  which  only  completeness  can 
possess  (and  no  part  could  be  complete  in  itself 
unless  completely  separate  and  independent, 
w^hich  nothing  is)  therefore  good  and  evil  are 
relative,  and  pertain  to  every  thing,  considered  as 
a  part. 

This  has  a  decided  bearing  on  practical  life. 
The  Dawn-Thought  philosopher  perceives  that 
joy  and  sorrow^,  pleasure  and  pain,  good  and  evil, 
in  their  various  forms,  practically  balance  every 
where  in  life.  Therefore  he  is  never  wildly 
elated  or  deeply  depressed,  he  is  neither  cynical 
nor  fanatical ;  neither  pessimist  nor  optimist  as 
regards  the  world  about  him.  He  knows  that 
every  crime  must  translate  to  virtue,  every  sla- 
very produce  liberty,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
blighted  fruits  are  borne  on  all  the  trees  of  joy. 
Therefore  he  cultivates  in  his  own  mind  the 
appreciation  of  every  good  as  it  comes,  and  the 
ignoring  of  the  evil  w^hen  it  is  uppermost,  know- 
ing that  each  will  soon  change  to  its  opposite. 
Only,  finally,  in  his  view  of  Nirvana,  the  Home- 

55 


GOOD   AND 
EVIL   IN 
THE 
PARTIAL 


GOOD   AND 

EVIL    IN 

THE 

PARTIAL 


FANATI- 
CISM  AND 
COMMON- 
SENSE 


Coming,  the  God-Attainment,  is  he  optimistic. 
And  there  is  no  bitterness  in  his  heart,  because 
he  realizes  that  things  are  as  they  are  from  inevi- 
table necessity  and  logic,  and  that  the  Divine, 
himself,  if  he  would  create  at  all,  must  make 
creatures  with  the  imperfections  w^hich  part  ex- 
istences cannot  avoid.  With  every  change  of 
life,  every  new  stage  of  progress,  he  perceives 
new  weaknesses  and  evil  in  a  ne'w  form,  and 
satisfaction  and  compensation  in  a  new  form. 
Only  in  the  complete  circle  are  compensations 
adequate,  and  justice  is  done. 

IFE  being  an  adjustment  of  op- 
posites,  there  are  three  factors  to 
truth  —  the  Thesis,  the  Anti-the- 
sis, the  Syn-thesis.  Now  what 
men  call  a  "crank,"  a  "fanatic," 
a  "zealot,"  is  one  w^ho  sees  only 
one  side  of  truth,  with  such  narrowness  and  in- 
tensity that  he  can  never  receive  the  antithesis  of 
what  he  declares  true.  Some  other  "  crank  "  has 
to  make  a  thesis  of  that,  in  order  to  give  it  due 
prominence.  Therefore  enthusiasts  are  always 
open  to  refutation  and  puncture  by  opposing 
fanatics. 

But  a  man  of  "  common-sense  "  is  one  who,  by 
intuition  rather  than  logic,  holds  that  there  is  a 

56 


golden  mean,  that  no  extreme  is  true  alone,  v/ho, 
by  nature,  is  an  eclectic  and  reconciler.  He  is 
practical,  and  sees  just  hov/  much  of  each  is 
available,  under  present  conditions,  to  gain  a 
desired  end.  Practically,  because  of  this  useful 
and  applicable  intuition,  he  is  often  more  of  a 
philosopher  than  many  great  theorists. 

]HE  core  of  religion,  something 
v/hich  may  come  to  the  mind  of 
man  anyv/here,  with  any  creed  or 
no  creed,  appears  to  be  this :  An 
intuition  of  the  presence  of  an 
indwelling  Force  in  the  universe 
and  of  its  protective  love.  This  is  the  center, 
and  this  is  enough.  All  else  is  accessory.  "With 
this  alone  a  man  has  religion  and  rest. 

N  one  sense,  and  with  minds  that 
^  have  reached  the  Overlook,  there 
f  is  no  place  in  the  Dawn-Thought 
religion  for  prayer.  How  can  there 
be  ?  Worship,  praise,  adoration, 
yes  ;  but  petition,  no.  For  if  God 
be  all  and  does  all,  all  is  right,  all  is  well  done, 
all  is  planned  from  the  beginning  and  cannot  be 
changed.  Prayer  asks  a  change,  implies  a  dis- 
trust, a  suspicion,  a  criticism.  It.  is  an  impu- 
dence,  an  impertinence,  the  finite  advising  the 

57 


FANATI- 
CISM   AND 
COMMON- 
SENSE 


THE  HEART 

OF 

RELIGION 


ACCEPT- 
ANCE   AND 
THE    CON- 
TRADIC- 
TION   IN 
PRAYER 


ACCEPT-      infinite,  ignorance  presuming  to  correct  the  work 

ANCE    AND      of  complete  knowledge.     The  Pantheist  sees  God 

THE    CON-      in  every  thing,  and  -worships  every  thing  as  him, 

TRADIC-      and  asks  no  change.     He  is  reconciled.     "  Thy 

TION    IN      Kingdom  come  and  thy  will  be  done  on   earth 

PRAYER      and  in  heaven  I  " 

Nor  does  he  ask  God  to  bless  his  meat,  for  w^hy 
ask  God  to  bless  a  part  of  himself?  Nor  does  he 
consecrate  to  him  a  part  of  the  earth,  or  a  house, 
when  all  "  the  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness 
thereof,"  and  he  dwells  in  an  habitation  not  made 
with  hands.  To  the  Pantheist,  his  religion  is 
the  appreciation  of  every  thing  as  divine,  and  he 
can  make  no  partitions, 

I  have  said  there  v^/as  no  place  in  the  Davi^n- 
Thought  religion  for  prayer.  It  is  true,  and  yet 
not  true,  there  is  no  place,  and  yet  there  is  a 
place.  It  is  true  that  prayer  is  presumptuous  and 
impertinent,  yet  it  is  true,  too,  that  prayer  is 
wise  and  pertinent.  It  is  foolish  to  petition  the 
Unchangeable,  and  impudent  and  absurd  in  the 
part-^wise  to  criticise  or  advise  the  All- Wise,  yet 
in  the  sight  of  the  Large  One  there  are  no  real 
sins,  but  ignorance  and  mistake  merely,  for  which 
he  is  at  last  responsible  and  not  ourselves.  "We 
cannot  sin  against  God,  for  we  all  do  his  will  as 
helplessly  as  the  winds  and  waves.     The  Divine 

58 


is  never  angry  or  offended  by  any  soul,  because 
he  always  understands  the  whole  situation,  and 
moves  and  directs  all.  His  forgiveness  is  always 
perfect,  or  rather  he  never  forgives  because  he 
cannot  be  offended  —  it  is  his  love  that  is  perfect 
and  changes  not,  neither  to  smite  nor  pardon. 

Therefore  to  those  to  whom  prayer  seems  right 
it  is  right  —  they  are  at  that  stage  of  evolution  in 
which  prayer  is  appropriate  —  they  have  as  yet 
only  the  Underlook,  and  all  the  fictions  of  exist- 
ence are  very  real  to  them.  Like  children  v/ith 
a  w^himsical  father,  they  coax,  plead,  argue,  and 
confess,  as  though  Deity  could  be  cajoled,  taught, 
and  diplomatically  "talked  over."  It  is  laugh- 
able, it  is  revolting,  yet  these  diplomats  are  per- 
fectly sincere,  perfectly  reverent,  never  dream  of 
incongruity,  and,  more  than  that,  derive  a  real 
good  from  the  act. 

For  we  may  feel  assured  that  nothing  takes 
deep  hold  upon  the  people  except  it  be  by  a  true 
appetite,  and  that  that  which  seems  to  satisfy 
always  does  satisfy.  And  there  is  a  restfulness 
about  prayer,  and  a  peace,  refreshment,  and  calm- 
ness following  its  exercise,  v/hich  prove  it  the 
satisfaction  of  a  deep  need.  And  this  is  so  be- 
cause prayer,  at  bottom,  is  longing,  aspiration ; 
and  the  strongest  and  most  universal  out-reach 


ACCEPT- 
ANCE   AND 
THE    CON- 
TRADIC- 
TION   IN 
PRAYER 


59 


ACCEPT-     in  all  nature,   as  we   have  seen,   is  toward  the 
ANCE    AND     Divine.    All  nature,  in  every  part,  prays  for  union, 
THE    CON-     and  what  w^e  call  prayer  is  simply  one  expres- 
TRADIC-     sion  of  that  universal,  centripetal  force  elsewhere 
TION    IN     spoken  of.     Hov^^ever  ignorantly  voiced  it  origin- 
PRAYER     ates  in  the  yearning  to  be  at-one,  to  attain  Enlarge- 
ment, and  tends  to  bring  us  to  the  Great  Center. 
Hence    its    healthfulness.      We    bring    our    little 
buckets  to  the  great  V/ell  and  go  away  refreshed. 
Prayer   is   the   voice    of  love,   and   all  love   is 
prayer. 

And  this  is  the  secret  basis  and  nature  of  prayer. 
It  is  the  impulse  toward  union,  it  is  "  Nearer  my 
God  to  thee,"  it  is  the  urge  toward  the  Divine, 
it  is  ambition,  aspiration,  grow^th-direction,  it  is 
the  inward  flow^  of  the  world's  blood.  And  no 
one  feels  this  more  than  the  Dawn-Thinker.  He 
is  the  only  one  w^ho  truly  and  consciously  "  prays 
without  ceasing  "  ;  his  face  is  always  to  the  East ; 
he  is  always  on  the  road  to  Mecca ;  he  is  con- 
sciously going  home.  His  desire  for  attainment, 
for  the  divine-indwelling,  for  the  Overlook  and 
the  Serene  Life,  is  ever  with  him,  though  he 
bend  not  the  knee,  nor  fold  the  hand,  nor  utter 
the  formal  word  in  all  a  life's  journey.  Prayer 
is  the  heart  of  his  life,  and  his  v/hole  life  is 
prayer. 

60 


OW  if  the  whole  inclusive  uni- 
verse is  alive,  in  whole  and  in 
every  part,  in  every  form  and 
manifestation,  —  and  this  is  in  my 
Dawn-Thought,  —  then  perhaps 
the  best  correlative  term  or  syno- 
nym for  the  Divine,  w^ho  is  the  universe,  is  The 
Life.  And  if  death  is  only  an  illusion,  an  appear- 
ance, or  rather  a  disappearance  of  one  form  of 
life  behind  or  w^ithin  another  form,  to  reappear 
later  on  intact  and  indeed  enlarged,  we  can  under- 
stand that  the  Divine  is  not  only  The  Life  but 
the  Resurrection,  and  we  perceive  how^  Jesus,  in 
an  ecstasy  of  attainment  and  Messiah-ship  identi- 
fying himself  w^ith  the  Divine,  could  cry:  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life."  And  if  one  great 
life  is  all  and  the  substance  of  all,  may  it  not  be 
that  this  intuitional  consciousness  of  a  universal 
existence,  transcending  evidence  (for  has  not 
Herbert  Spencer  shown,  in  the  v/onderfui  chap- 
ters of  "  First  Principles,"  that  neither  by  reli- 
gious reasoning  nor  by  scientific  reasoning  can  w^e 
arrive  at  logical  proof  of  our  ultimate  ideas,  yet 
w^e  cannot  escape  the  consciousness  of  a  great 
reality?),  this  "cosmic  consciousness"  of  life  of 
the  modern,  is  the  same  as  the  "faith"  of  the 
ancient  ?    For  if  life  is  all,  and  the  only  substance, 


LIFE    AND 
FAITH 


LIFE  AND 
FAITH 


ENLARGE- 
MENT 


THE 
DA\VN-JOY 


and  if  faith  is  our  grasp  on  it,  and  if  this  con- 
sciousness of  life  is  our  only  evidence  of  it,  then 
can  we  understand  that  mystical  hard  saying : 
"  Now  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for, 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen." 

[HY  do  we  so  enjoy  the  acquisi- 
tion of  kno"wledge  apparently  for 
its  own  sake  ?  Because  the  ac- 
quisition of  every  fact  is  an  en- 
largement of  consciousness,  and 
enlargement  of  consciousness  is 
becoming  Divine,  is  that  in  w^hich  all  our  highest 
enjoyments  —  those  we  call  by  the  collective 
name  happiness — consist.  So  -with  increase  in 
health,  strength,  beauty,  love-power,  creative 
art-power,  all  these  mean  enlargement  in  Divine- 
attainment  and  yield  a  pure  joy. 

HIS  Dawn-Thought  has  broken 
into  my  life  like  a  veritable  light. 
I  w^as  not  conscious  before  of 
shadow,  but  now  that  the  light 
has  come  I  knov\;'  the  difference 
by  the  contrast.  I  feel  so  much 
younger,  lighter,  healthier,  happier.  Something 
has  come  that  my  system  craved,  like  food  to  the 
hungry,  like  drink  to  one  athirst. 


62 


DEEM  that  the  Light  of  the  World 
is  always  shining,  and  that  all 
things  and  all  lives  are  more  or 
less  translucent  to  it.  And  so  it 
tNi^//4  comes  to  us  through  all  these 
j^^>j(j^  media,  stained  and  colored  by  each 
according  to  its  tint,  like  sunlight  through  cathe- 
dral windovv^s,  or  through  various  atmospheres, 
or  through  the  leaves  of  a  forest.  It  never  reaches 
us  quite  pure,  therefore  all  revelations  are  but 
partial  and  imperfect,  there  is  no  one  and  nothing 
infallible,  yet  every  man,  every  nation,  yes,  every 
beast,  flower,  crystal,  has  the  light. 

HE  sceptic  calls  the  reverence 
which  the  ignorant  feel  for  the  un- 
known superstition,  yet  the  igno- 
rant have  right  as  vv^ell  as  the 
skeptic.  That  w^hich  we  do  not 
know  stands  apart  from  us, 
clothed  in  vague  terrors,  and  is  the  Unknov/n 
God  w^hich  we  dread,  yet  which  v^q  worship  and 
to  v/hich  we  yearn,  but  that  which  we  know  we 
have  made  a  part  of  ourselves,  our  consciousness. 
It  is  our  Self,  the  Attained-God  (so  far  as  we  have 
gone),  and  we  no  longer  fear  it  because  we  com- 
prehend it.  Our  attitude  to  what  v^^'e  do  not 
know^  is  the  fear  of  God,  and  our  attitude  to  what 
63 


THE    LIGHT 
OF   THE 
WORLD 


SUPERSTI- 
TION  AND 
KNOWL- 
EDGE 


SUPERSTI- 
TION  AND 
KNOWL- 
EDGE 

PAIN    AND 
FEAR   THE 
UTTER- 
ANCE   OF 
THE 
PARTIAL 


■WQ  know  is  the  love  of  God ;  for  what  -we  know 
is  our  own,  and  w^e  love  our  own.  Therefore  a 
certain  stage  of  attained  knowledge  casts  out  fear, 
LL  pain,  fear,  trouble,  evil,  arise 
from  partialness,  and  from  imper- 
fection of  view^.  The  more  we 
know,  the  more  we  unite,  the  more 
we  attain,  the  more  these  disap- 
pear, and  courage  and  ease  ap- 
pear. Therefore  knowledge  is  the  true  Savior. 
Therefore  the  saying  of  Jesus,  "  The  Truth  shall 
make  you  free."  But  as  we  enlarge  in  knowledge 
comes  reconciliation  and  lack  of  struggle,  w^e  are 
at  home  with  life  as  it  is,  yet,  in  ceasing  to  strug- 
gle w^ith  it,  do  more  than  any  else  to  make  it  as 
it  should  be.  Therefore  the  w^ord  of  Epictetus  : 
"  Do  not  seek  to  have  all  things  happen  as  you 
would  choose  them,  but  rather  choose  them  to 
happen  as  they  do  ;  and  so  shall  the  current  of 
your  life  flow  free."  For  every  man,  who,  like 
Whitman,  for  example,  has  obtained  a  glimpse 
of  Reconciliation,  and  agrees  to  the  v/orld's  tides, 
becomes  at  once  a  center  of  peace  and  harmony, 
a  w^indow  of  new  light,  a  point  of  happy  growth. 
Agreement,  acceptance,  is  the  great  peace- 
maker,   because   it   brings    union,   and   love   and 

harmony  are  of  union,  and  joy  attends. 

6a 


ND  this  is  greatness  that  one  ap- 
preciate the  greatness  there  is 
about  him  in  every  least  as  in 
every  large  thing.  It  will  be  found 
that  the  man  of  genius  finds  great- 
ness and  wonder  and  beauty  and 
mystery,  and  truth  wdthin  truth,  -where  the  com- 
mon-man finds  only  commonplace.  "When  your 
artist  has  painted  your  hutch,  or  your  fence- 
corner,  or  your  cabbage-garden,  you  shall  some- 
v/hat  see  what  beauty  and  wonder  there  was  in 
it  —  in  this  that  you  deemed  so  vulgar. 

"  Elder,  mulien  and  poke-weed  and  the  scabs 
on  the  worm-fence." 

And  this  is  because  every  least  thing,  as  every 
large  thing,  also  takes  hold  on  the  infinite,  and 
on  one  side  is  infinite  —  wonder_within  wonder, 
mystery  within  my!stery,  truth  w^ithin  truth,  to 
infinity.  For  there  is  nothing  separate,  and 
the  all  is  in  each. 

APPREHEND  that  the  desire  for 
secrecy  is  one  of  the  low^er  things 
which  higher  minds  outgrow^.  The 
desire  to  hide  and  conceal  hints  of 
evil.  It  is  because  we  plot  evil 
against  others,  or  suspect  that  they 
plot  danger  to  us,  that  we  wear  masks,  talk  eva- 

65 


GREAT- 
NESS 


FRANKNESS 


FRANKNESS  sively,  and  work  in  the  dark.  Cunning  and  peril 
both  demand  privacy,  but  \Ai'hen  we  neither  fear 
nor  hate  we  are  open.  Trust  and  love  tell  every- 
thing ;  and  the  fearless  and  harmless  are  frank. 

Now  ignorance  separates  ;  what  we  do  not 
know  is  not  a  part  of  us,  but  what  we  do  know  is 
united  to  us.  And  love  is  the  desire  for  and  joy 
in  union.  When  therefore  we  wish  another  to 
love  us  we  desire  to  reveal  ourselves  utterly,  for 
we  wish  to  be  altogether  known  and  possessed, 
■  even  as  we  w^ish  to  know  and  possess.  On  every 
noble  nature,  when  kindled  by  love,  comes  an 
imperious  yearning  to  confess  every  thing,  to  give 
all,  to  be  at-one.  Therefore  love  resents  secrecy, 
and  all  withholding,  or  apart  living,  and  therefore, 
as  our  sympathies  enlarge,  as  we  love  more  and 
grow  m.ore  into  unison  with  all  things,  we  shall 
conceal  less.  And  in  proportion  as  w^e  lead  our 
lives  openly  before  all  men,  frankly  explaining  all 
our  deeds  and  motives,  shall  we  attract  to  our- 
selves love  and  trust  and  ansv/ering  frankness. 
Perhaps  the  books  that  teach  the  world  most, 
and  have  the  most  undying  fascination,  are  those 
■which  are  in  their  nature  confessions.  And  even 
the  romances  which,  like  Crusoe,  profess  to  con- 
fess the  faults  and  mistakes  of  life  with  their 
consequences,  if  truth-like,  are  enduring  in  their 

6a 


charm.  And  he  is  the  great  artist  who,  in  his 
works,  reveals  himself  v,7ithout  ceasing,  and  him 
w^e  love. 

We  are  all  to  be  united  at  last,  and  what  w^e 
call  progression  is  ever  in  the  direction  of  union 
and  self-revelation  ;  self-expression  makes  for 
union,  and  the  plant  that  grows  unfurls  its  buds 
and  throw^s  its  petals  open. 

HAVE  supposed  that  the  Dawn- 
Thought  might  explain  the  pleas- 

VvfT  r^^Wv!!  ^^^  "w^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  deferentialities 
^^  r'^\/i'l  of  polite  life.  "We  are  pleased  at 
the  respectful  tone,  the  lifted  hat, 
the  bow,  the  requested  permission 
to  serve  ;  yet  these  all  smack  of  the  slave  —  why 
then  do  we  enjoy  the  giving  and  receiving  of 
them  ? 

In  the  Dawn-Thought  we  find  two  forces 
whereby  the  universe  stands,  the  centripetal  and 
the  centrifugal,  the  uniting  and  dividing,  love  and 
liberty.  Now,  if  you  will  notice,  you  shall  find 
that  we  do  not  admire  those  obeisances  which 
are  really  slavish,  the  fawning  and  cringing  of 
abject  fear  and  submission.  Even  if  we  exact 
these,  we  despise  them  w^ith  disgust.  That  is  to 
us  beautiful  and  significant  in  manners  w^hich 
symbolizes  the  two  forces  of  life  —  that  deference 

67 


FRANKNESS 


AN    AN- 
SWER  ON 
POLITE- 
NESS 


AN    AN- 
SWER   ON 
POLITE- 
NESS 


SIN    IS    RE- 
FUSED 
GROWTH 


and  courtesy  which  says  "  You  are  great !  I  wor- 
ship you  !  "  mingled  with  that  dignity  which  says 
''  I,  too,  am  great  and  w^orthy  of  your  w^orship  !  " 
—  in  w^hich  union  and  independence,  love  and 
liberty  are  expressed  with  equal  emphasis  in 
the  same  act. 

OW  sin  is  a  denial  of  the  law  of 
upward  growth  ;  it  is  a  turning 
back  on  the  path,  a  failure  or  re- 
fusal to  look  at  things  in  the  new 
light  that  is  given,  to  receive  the 
new  food,  to  put  out  the  new 
branch.  Something  which  in  the  past  we  found 
good  nov/  smacks  of  evil,  the  inner  voice  assures 
us  it  is  time  for  us  to  leave  it  and  go  on,  but,  like 
Peter,  we  curse  and  deny,  and  turn  back,  swear- 
ing that  that  which  was  once  good  must  always 
be  good,  and  live  our  old  habits  doggedly.  Not 
however  that  the  law  of  life  is  ever  balked,  or 
that  we  ever  really  succeed  in  turning  back  the 
hands  on  the  dial.  Our  sin,  our  denial,  our  re- 
fusal, at  last,  by  the  reaction  of  disgust  and  the 
sting  of  sad  consequence,  drive  us  even  farther 
on  the  way.  They  are  but  the  compression  of 
air  in  the  barrel,  but  the  tightening  of  the  spring, 
and  only  ensure  the  velocity  of  our  future  progress. 


68 


Y  sin,  shame,  joy,  virtue  and  sor- 
row, action  and  reaction,  attrac- 
tion and  repulsion,  the  soul,  like 
a  barbed  arrow,  ever  goes  on.  It 
cannot  go  back,  or  return  through 
the  valves  of  its  coming. 
But  this  must  not  be  understood  to  be  fulfilled 
in  one  and  every  earth-visit.  It  is  true  only  of 
the  whole  circle-voyage  of  the  soul.  In  one 
earth-trip,  one  "life,"  as  v^^e  say,  it  may  be  that 
there  v/ould  nothing  be  but  a  standing  still  or  a 
turning  back,  nothing  but  sin.  But  the  whole 
course  of  all  is  on. 

ND  it  is  plain  from  the  foregoing 
that  sin  also  has  its  virtue.  And 
this  w^e  might  expect.  For  if  God 
is  everything  and  everything  is 
God,  then  nothing  can  be  entirely 
bad.  Indeed  nothing  is  bad  at  all, 
but  seemingly  it  is  more  or  less  so  (everything) 
when  view^ed  from  the  partial,  and  according  to 
its  distance  or  difference  from  the  attained  Di- 
vine. And  because  distance  makes  apparent  bad- 
ness, we  classify  all  things  which  are  but  new  on 
the  path  as  "low,"  "gross,"  "crude,"  "mate- 
rial," etc.  ;  and  those  that  seem  to  lead  back,  to 
hinder,  to  stand  in  the  v^ay,  we  call  "wicked," 

69 


THE  ONGO 


THE    VIR- 
TUE OF  SIN 


THE    VIR- 
TUE OF  SIN 


THE    HARD 

AND   THE 

SOFT 


"sinful,"  "evil,"  etc.  That  is  our  progressive 
side  names  thus.  But  quite  often,  v^hen  it  comes 
to  social,  political,  religious,  and  moral  matters, 
our  conservative  side  is  quite  as  free  in  dubbing 
the  pioneering,  on-pushing  urge  bad  and  criminal. 
And  each  is  right,  and  each  wrong,  according  to 
the  point  of  viev/.  Live  and  outlive,  that  is 
the  lav^  —  so  much  grov/th  and  experience  in  so 
much  time,  each  thing  right  in  its  time  and  place, 
and  no  new  thing  attained  till  old  things  are  ful- 
filled. Where  growth  is  too  fast,  there  is  sappy 
softness  and  hot-house  spindling,  and  where 
there  is  too  much  conservatism,  Hindoo,  Chinese 
deadness. 

Everywhere  in  life  we  shall 

mark  the  two,  the  ebb  and  the 
flow,  the  eddy  and  the  current, 
heart-wood  and  sap-v/ood,  bone 
and  flesh,  sternness  and  gentle- 
ness, wrath  and  peace,  sin  and 
virtue,  the  esthethic  and  the  mechanical,  the  re- 
fined and  the  crude,  the  savage  and  the  civilizee, 
alw^ays  the  hard  and  the  soft,  side  by  side  and 
correcting  each  other.  They  are  in^woven,  in- 
separable, yet  infinitely  interchangeable.  And 
this  is  no  accident. 

There  are  those  who  w^ould   attain   perfection 
70 


by  leading  one-sided  lives  ;  by  excluding  all  that 
we  call  wicked,  harsh,  low,  crude,  rough,  vulgar, 
or  unrefined.  But  such  lives  are  failures  in  the 
sense  that  they  shoot  wide  of  the  target.  The 
mass  of  men  instinctively  avoid  these  "  unco 
guid,"  over-nice,  too-refined.  We  have  the  feel- 
ing that  the  sinless  man  is  a  sort  of  sickly  de- 
formity, and  do  not  envy  him  ;  we  suspect  the 
oathless  man  ;  we  trust  not  the  tones  that  are 
always  sweet ;  we  are  afraid  of  the  always  gentle, 
or  deem  them  weak,  and  we  have  no  confidence 
in  our  friend  till  we  have  received  his  confession 
and  mapped  his  faults.  A  good,  sweet  human 
fault  is  a  certificate  of  character,  and  we  love  it, 
and  we  know  right  w^ell  and  tenderly  that  the 
faults  of  the  great  are  also  great.  We  demand 
the  round,  the  full,  the  hard  with  the  soft,  the 
bone  and  fat  in  the  meat,  the  bran  in  the  flour, 
and  will  not  be  cheated. 

It  is  so  everywhere  in  life.  All  sorts  of  efforts 
have  been  made  to  get  "  pure  food,"  the  essence 
of  nutrition,  to  extract,  separate  and  refine,  but 
none  of  these  artificial  products  satisfy  a  healthy 
appetite  or  sustain  life.  Like  a  mule  we  must 
have  "  roughness  ;  "  and  v/hen  we  have  milled 
out  all  the  harshness  of  our  wheat  v/e  shall  find 
that  our  superfine  flour  is  not  sufficient,  and  what 
71 


THE    HARD 
AND    THE 
SOFT 


THE    HARD    we  have   taken   out  must   be  supplied  in  some 

AND    THE     other  form  or  the  nutrition  of  the  system  suffers. 

SOFT    The  young  girl  w^hom  -we  educate  in  convents, 

that  no  breath  of  lust  may  taint  her,  is  not  the 

one  we  may  trust  with  seducers. 

These  one-sided  people,  who  choose  so  fastidi- 
ously, are  not  life's  happy  ones.  They  are  at 
feud  with  the  actual,  they  are  the  unreconciled. 
"  The  fiend  that  torments  man  is  his  love  for 
the  perfect,"  said  Emerson,  and  these  have  such 
a  passion  for  the  perfect  that  they  are  bitter, 
cynical,  pessimistic,  reproachful  of  God,  man 
and  nature  ;  and  therefore,  most  imperfect  them- 
selves, stand  in  the  v/ay  of  joy.  Yet,  when,  as 
sometimes  happens,  their  passion  for  the  perfect 
is  tempered  v/ith  a  clear  appreciation  of  the  good 
in  the  passing  actual,  how  sweet  and  beautiful 
their  lives  can  be  !  Then  they  have  the  true  viev/ 
and  the  right  grasp ;  they  see  the  good  in  all,  yet 
prefer  the  best  in  its  own  ripe  time. 

And  even  the  cranks,  the  extremists,  the  accu- 
sers, and  rebuking  prophets,  the  Utopians,  the 
exquisites,  who  will  not  be  happy  where  they 
cannot  see  ideal  perfection,  even  these,  spite  of 
their  self-torment,  in  their  zeal  and  unrest  and 
discontent,  do  most  precious  work,  and  deserve 
our  gratitude  in  truth.    We  laugh  at  them,  shame 

72 


them,  hate  them,  slay  them,  but  they  do  us  much 
good  in  return.  They  emphasize  the  ideal  by 
sheer  exaggeration  and  excess.  The  Pharisee 
will  not  let  us  forget  the  letter  nor  the  mystic  the 
spirit ;  the  esthete  forces  us  to  remember  art  and 
the  beautiful ;  the  very  fops  save  us  from  slovenli- 
ness. As  extremes  ever  meet,  so  all  extremists, 
in  the  end,  aid  and  establish  their  opposites,  and 
the  broken  circle  is  made  whole. 

The  minister,  the  priest,  is  one  v^ho,  more 
prominently  than  any  other,  perhaps,  strives  after 
this  partial-perfect.  He  is  partisan,  a  "  soldier 
of  the  Cross,"  and  he  preaches  war  and  unrecon- 
ciliation.  To  him  there  is  always  a  part  repro- 
bate, and  one-half  of  things,  at  least,  is  a  huge 
mistake.  His  God  has  an  Enemy,  who  is  almost 
too  much  for  him,  and  the  cry  is  "  All  hands  to 
the  rescue  !  "  Yet,  though  men  sv/ear  they  be- 
lieve all  that  he  says,  and  will  live  to  it,  still  they 
keep  their  parts  and  passions,  nature  is  vindi- 
cated, and  the  rivers  of  human  life  lio'w  majesti- 
cally on,  as  unmindful  as  the  stars  and  the  winds 
of  condemnation  and  conviction  of  sin. 

Yet  the  priest  is  what  he  believes  himself,  a 
mouthpiece  of  God,  and  does  the  work  given  him 
right  usefully,  even  if  he  is  blissfully  unconscious 
that  the  poor  sinner  over  whom  he  thunders  is 

73 


THE  HARD 
AND  THE 
SOFT 


THE    HARD 

AND   THE 

SOFT 


also  a  prophet  and  a  worker,  equally  loved  and 
approved. 

"We  cannot  pick  out  a  part  of  life  and  leave  the 
rest.  Nature  -will  not  have  it  so.  She  insists  on 
the  round.     There  is  alw^ays  the  other  side. 

Leaves  and  fiowrers  hang  not  in  the  air  un- 
supported ;  there  are  always  the  stem  and  the 
branches.  Nor  do  even  the  stars  and  the  clouds 
hang  unsupported.  No  matter  how  fair  and 
sweet  the  flesh  there  are  always  bones  beneath. 
The  sw^eet,  the  gentle,  peace,  love,  beauty,  virtue, 
joy,  poetry  —  how  w^e  apotheosize  all  these  and 
condemn  their  opposites,  yet  simply  we  cannot 
have  them  w^ithout  their  opposites.  For  so  much 
peace  so  much  w^ar ;  for  so  much  sweet  so  much 
bitter.  For  there  is  always  the  hard  with  the 
soft,  the  shadow  with  the  sun,  the  mechanical 
with  the  fluent,  the  straight  with  the  curved,  the 
blow  w^ith  the  caress. 

For  life  stands  by  the  thrust  of  opposites  and 
the  push  of  those  w^hich  deny  each  other. 

"When  the  mother  meets  the  father  the  child 
starts  forward  on  the  new  life  like  a  glad  traveler 
on  a  new^  path. 

When  the  negative  electric  comes  to  the  posi- 
tive electric,  then  flies  the  lightning  flash. 

"When  the  sweet  seed  feeds  on  the  foul  rot,  then 
springs  the  green  blade. 

74 


For  Life  is  One,  but  its  manifestations  are  Two, 
and  the  Whole  is  in  embryo  in  every  part ;  and 
all  things  are  formed  in  its  image  because  there 
is  no  other  pattern  or  model  —  there  is  no  other. 
HE  inconsistency  noticed  in  the 
words  of  the  wise  is  a  trial  to 
many  hero-w^orshiping  minds,  but 
is  it  not,  indeed,  only  a  proof  of 
higher  greatness  ?  It  is  easy  for 
a  small  mind,  or  a  mind  dealing 
altogether  in  abstract  and  ideal  goods,  to  be  totally 
accurate,  consistent,  logical ;  but  the  greater  the 
mind  the  more  it  takes  hold  on  the  Great  Paradox, 
and  feels  and  expresses  the  contradiction  in  every- 
thing. It  is  necessarily  eclectic,  appreciative,  toler- 
ant, open,  truthful  to  its  vision,  and  must  feel  many 
opposite  things  good  and  true  and  a  pressure  to  so 
declare  them.  Often,  before  the  Dawn-Thought 
gave  me  Reconciliation,  have  I  felt  the  pain  of  this. 
But  now  I  have  welcome  for  the  other  side. 

AM  warned  by  kindly  friends  that 
I  shall  hurt  this  book  for  many  if 
I  use  the  word  God  so  freely.  I 
k'^^pj  K^ri  am  told  it  is  a  confusing  word,  that 
\/f^^  ^X^t  every  one  uses  it  differently,  that 
■  III  liiii  rnost  people  attach  to  it  the  old 
orthodox  idea,  and  many  other  objections. 

75 


THE    HARD 
AND   THE 
SOFT 

THE  LARGE 
CONTAINS 
CONTRA- 
DICTION 


THE  WORD 
"  GOD  " 


THE    WORD  But  I  see  in  none  of  these  any  strong  argument. 

"GOD"  Of  course  to  those  who  insist  on  sharp  defini- 
tions, who  do  not  look  at  things  centrally,  God  is 
a  confusing  word — so  is  liberty,  love,  philosophy, 
any  word  you  please  on  which  the  attention  of 
many  is  concentrated.  Every  independent  thinker 
stains  his  words  through  and  through  with  the 
pigment  of  his  thought,  and  they  are  not  as  other 
men's  are.  But  I  do  not  fear  that  a  kind  and 
fair  reader  v^ill  misunderstand  me,  at  least  not 
anyone  who  stands  anyway  nearly  on  the  same 
plane  of  spiritual  development  with  me,  and,  after 
all,  my  message  is  only  to  such,  for  only  such 
can  understand  any  speaker.  You  may  spend  all 
your  days  in  explaining  your  view,  but  those 
below  you  on  the  ladder  will  never  see  it  as  you 
see  it  till  they  also  stand  v/here  you  stand.  This 
is  immutable  law.  I  speak  to  my  own,  and  my 
ow^n  "will  understand. 

I  use  the  word  God  because  Monotheists  and 
Pantheists  of  all  time  have  used  it,  and  these  are 
they  'who  can  most  easily  understand  me.  And 
I  use  the  word  God  because  it  means  Good,  and 
by  the  good  we  all  understand  that  which  makes 
for  our  happiness,  and  I  wish  to  emphasize,  in 
this  book,  the  idea  that  the  universe,  its  Power, 
and  its  Life,  works  together  in  every  part,  and  as 

76 


a  whole,  for  our  happiness  and  the  happiness  of  THE    WORD 
all,  in  the  largest,  best,  and  completest  sense  of  "  GOD  " 
that  word. 

OVE  is  the  uniting  element.     In  OF  CERTAIN 
sex  love  w^e  draw^  tow^ard  the  MEANINGS 
Center ;  in  parent-love  the   Cen-  AND    MAT- 
tral  Love  flow^s   out  through  us  TERS   IN 
toward  the  parts.     Like  the  tides   LOVE 
of  the  sea,  there  is  forever  a  ma- 
jestic influx  and  efflux   of  love  through  all  the 
v/orld.      For  it  is  not  to   be   forgotten  that  the 
Divine  is  feminine  as  well  as  masculine.  Mother 
as  w^ell  as  Father.     The  Divine  Tenderness,  the 
Divine  Woman,  is  Peace,  Rest,  the  Great  Com- 
forter.    The  Divine   Strength,  the  Father,  holds 
us  and  protects  us,  the  Divine  Tenderness,  the 
Mother,  feeds  and  cherishes  us.     Therefore  the 
sexes  are  diff"erent  and  equal ;  therefore  sex  and 
parenthood  symbolize  religion  with  peculiar  force, 
and  refer  ever  to  the  most  sacred  things ;  there- 
fore the  ancients  were  reasonable  and  reverent 
in  worshiping  sex,   and  making  a  religion  of  it ; 
for  everything  about  sex  takes  hold  on  Life  and 
the  Mystery.     And  it  has  been  ever  noted  that 
woman  was  not  only  more  sexually  susceptible 
than  man,  but  more  religiously  susceptible,  and 
that  the  religious  mind  in  general  was  prone  to 
77 


OF  CERTAIN 
MEANINGS 
AND   MAT- 
TERS  IN 
LOVE 


dwell  much  on  things  of  sex  —  it  might  deify  it, 
or  shrink  from  it  as  the  great  temptation,  but 
it  could  not  hold  it  indifferent. 

But  to  the  Dawn  Thinker  the  relation  of  woman 
to  religion  is  natural  and  inevitable.  Religion 
peculiarly  refers  to  the  problems  of  Life  and 
Love,  -woman  is  peculiarly  the  cherisher  of  life 
and  agent  of  love.  Therefore  woman  always  has 
a  religious  feeling  about  her  love,  therefore  reli- 
gious emotion  can,  in  a  great  measure,  com- 
pensate her  for  absence  of  love. 

Man  and  woman  represent  the  hard  and  the 
soft,  the  two  forces  of  the  universe,  the  man 
Liberty,  the  dis-union  principle,  the  woman  Love, 
the  union  principle.  Man  represents  the  con- 
tending, separating  elements  in  life,  woman  rep- 
resents the  gregarious,  attracting  elements.  Man 
makes  w^ar  and  woman  makes  society ;  that  is  to 
say  it  is  the  peculiarly  male  element,  or  principle, 
that  makes  war  and  the  female  element  that 
makes  society.  Yet  some  men  have  more  of  the 
woman,  or  social  element,  than  some  women, 
and  some  women  are  masculine  in  their  love  of 
battle  ;  for  sex  is  more  a  matter  of  the  spirit  than 
of  form,  and  both  sexes  are  to  some  extent  in 
each.  It  is  not  natural  for  a  typical  woman  to 
fight,  except  for  her  children,  and  when,  like  Joan 

78 


of  Arc,  she  puts  on  armor  to  battle,  it  is  with 
the  feeling  that  she  is  the  Mother  of  the  Nation 
and  the  people  her  wronged  infants. 

In  sex-worship  the  cross,  the  most  ancient  of 
sacred  symbols,  ^A^as  a  type  of  man  and  woman 
and  their  union.  But  more  and  deeper  than  this 
it  is  representative  of  the  two  great  principles  of 
life,  their  union  and  contest,  their  mutual  sup- 
port and  antagonism,  their  peace  and  war,  and 
their  peace  through  war.  Had  the  two  bars  of 
the  cross  stood  parallel  they  would  have  repre- 
sented very  beautifully  equality  and  harmony  of 
tw^o,  but  they  w^ould  not  have  symbolized  life ; 
they  w^ould  not  have  symbolized  how^,  in  life,  the 
two  cross  each  other,  and  by  this  are  opposed 
and  by  this  united.  The  love  of  a  man  is  pro- 
jective, protective,  and  possessive,  the  element 
of  force  is  strong  in  it ;  but  the  love  of  a  woman 
is  receptive  and  distributive,  she  draws  and  gives, 
the  element  of  generosity  is  sw^eet  in  it  all.  A 
man's  love  is  peculiarly  of  the  loins,  but  the  love 
of  a  woman  is  more  peculiarly  breast-love.  The 
man  is  less  a  parent  than  the  initiator  of  parent- 
hood, sex  to  him  looms  large,  with  parentage  as 
a  remote  sequence  ;  but  a  -woman  is  peculiarly  a 
parent ;  to  her  motherhood  is  the  great  event,  and 
sex  only  an  incident.     But  Love  is  one,  and  its 

79 


OF CERTAIN 
MEANINGS 
AND    MAT- 
TERS  IN 
LOVE 


OF  CERTAIN 
MEANINGS 
AND   MAT- 
TERS  IN 
LOVE 


different  forms  are  not  really  separate,  but  only 
apparently  so,  they  ever  merge  and  flov/  together, 
and  in  each  is  the  potentiality  of  all.  A  loving 
man  is  tender  as  well  as  strong,  he  cherishes  and 
guards  the  woman  he  loves  as  if  she  were  a 
child  ;  a  loving  w^oman  is  strong  as  well  as  sweet, 
her  sex  surrounds  her  like  a  cloud,  she  compels 
as  well  as  attracts.  She  loves  to  take  the  head 
of  the  man  of  her  heart  on  her  breast,  and  com- 
fort him  like  a  babe ;  she  is  at  the  same  time  to 
him  friend,  lover,  guardian  and  mother,  and  she 
loves  to  mother  all  the  helpless  everywhere. 
Man  is  peculiarly  the  sex-lover  and  protector,  and 
woman  is  peculiarly  the  breast-lover  and  parent, 
but  as  humanity  becomes  truly  civilized,  that  is, 
socialized,  all  these  things  will  take  on  new  and 
enlarged  meanings.  While  normally  loving  one 
woman  above  all  others,  his  queen  and  guardian- 
angel,  the  love  of  a  man  w^ill  flow  out  in  passion- 
ate chivalry,  protection,  and  respect  to  every 
w^oman,  because  of  her  sex  and  the  loveliness  of 
it ;  and  while  normally  crowning  one  man  as  her 
King-consort  and  hero,  the  love  of  a  woman  will 
be  warm  to  all  men,  because  of  their  manliness 
and  potential  father-power  (the  most  beautiful  of 
all  powers  in  a  woman's  eyes)  and  her  abounding 
and  overflov/ing  divine  motherliness  will  make 

80 


her  make  man  help  her  in  caring  for  every  weak, 
sick,  helpless  one,  man,  woman,  or  infant,  in  the 
community,  as  a  precious  charge  and  child. 

And  as  attainment  advances,  and  the  human 
becomes  more  and  more  the  Divine  (who  is  both 
sexes  in  one)  the  differences  of  sex  will  be  less 
marked,  and  they  will  more  merge  and  blend 
together.  The  woman  w^ill  be  more  strong,  self- 
poised,  intelligent,  capable,  influential ;  the  man 
will  be  more  gentle,  tender,  compassionate,  par- 
ental. And  the  union  of  these  two  in  one  sym- 
bolizes the  Divine.  Therefore  -wedded  bliss  is 
the  most  religious  thing  in  life.  Therefore  the 
instinct  of  the  woman,  who  w^ill  alw^ays  disregard 
any  creed  or  code  to  be  true  to  her  heart,  is  pure 
and  right. 

In  nature  the  male  and  female  elements,  acting 
together,  beget  and  create.  This  is  known  in 
physical  generation,  it  is  not  recognized  that  it  is 
universal  law^  and  as  true  in  the  spiritual  sphere. 
But,  in  fact,  everywhere  and  always,  the  action 
of  the  man  on  the  woman,  of  the  woman  with 
the  man,  is  generative  —  the  tw^o  must  co-act  to 
beget  children  of  the  brain  and  soul.  Therefore, 
if  we  would  have  a  nation  overflow^ing  with 
genius,  we  must  look  to  it  that  the  sexes  are 
brought  together  in  everything,  and  never  allowed 

8i 


OF CERTAIN 
MEANINGS 
AND    MAT- 
TERS   IN 
LOVE 


OF  CERTAIN  to  be  grouped  apart  —  the  greatest  possible  free- 
MEANINGS  dom  and  encouragement  must  be  given  to  love 
AND    MAT-  and  attraction,  and  the  co-education,  co--working, 
TERS    IN  and  sympathy  of  the  sexes. 

LOVE  It  is  a  great  mistake  that  most  religions  have 
made,  especially  the  Christian,  to  bar  woman  as 
a  priestess  and  religious  teacher.  Because,  by 
reason  of  her  religious  nature,  this  is  peculiarly 
her  place.  And  indeed  she  is  imperatively  needed 
here,  as  elsewhere,  to  supplement  man.  For 
man,  being  the  separating  agent,  his  religious 
nature  is  analytic,  abstract,  didactic,  dogmatic, 
but  woman,  being  the  uniting  agent,  her  religious 
thought  is  synthetic,  concrete,  harmonizing.  Man 
concerns  himself  w^ith  definitions,  logic,  and  quar- 
rels of  form,  but  woman  concerns  herself  w^ith 
faith,  life,  love,  and  good  w^orks.  Despite  the 
fact  that  Jesus  was  mostly  feminine,  as  nearly 
woman  as  a  man  could  be,  the  monopoly  of 
church  offices  by  the  masculine  element  made  the 
history  of  Christianity,  till  within  a  very  few 
years,  mostly  a  record  of  bigotry  and  sectarian 
w^ar.  "With  the  introduction  of  Sunday-schools 
woman  entered  the  Church  as  a  religious  influ- 
ence, and  since  then  the  tendency  of  Christianity 
has  been  toward  the  obliteration  of  dogma  and 
the  emphasis  of  love. 

82 


The  blending  and  homogeneity  of  religion  with 
sex  may  be  easily  observed  in  life.  W^hen  moved 
by  a  great  love,  a  'woman  has  an  adoring,  wor- 
shipful impulse  toward  the  man  who  has  entered 
her  heart,  and  he  feels  that  she  is  a  visible  incar- 
nation of  the  Divine,  something  holier,  purer, 
more  sacred  than  common  clay ;  a  religious  ecs- 
tasy and  glamour  hangs  on  each.  And  the 
literature  of  love  is  naturally  expressed  in  terms  of 
religion,  the  poetry  of  religion  in  metaphors  of  love. 
HE  most  beautiful  of  all  loves,  if 
any  is  to  be  singled  out,  is  parent- 
love.  It  is  peculiarly  the  attribute 
of  the  woman.  It  is  the  origin  of 
the  instinct  of  giving,  the  source 
of  generosity  and  altruism.  The 
qualities  of  sex  v^^hich  balance  in  humanity  in  the 
wide  circle,  do  not  necessarily  equally  coexist  in 
the  arc.  In  the  lower  forms,  those  that  are  new 
on  the  path,  the  masculine  qualities  predominate, 
and  the  feminine  hardly  appear.  "War,  rape, 
conquest,  fiery,  brief  attraction,  are  found  as  low- 
down  as  we  may  go  ;  but  it  is  a  far  cry  from  the 
start  before  w^e  find  the  tender,  protecting  care  of 
the  parent,  and  at  first  this  is  but  for  a  short 
time,  perhaps  only  for  the  egg ;  but  as  life  attains 
toward   the    Center  there   is    constant   progress, 

83 


OF CERTAIN 
MEANINGS 
AND    MAT- 
TERS   IN 
LOVE 


MOTHER 
LOVE 


MOTHER  the  parent-love  growls  more  tender  and  helpful, 
LfOVE  lasts  longer,  till  it  covers  the  -whole  life  of  the 
child,  overflows  to  some  other  children,  then  to 
all  children,  then  to  all  young  creatures,  then  to 
all  creatures,  old  or  young,  which  are  weak,  help- 
less, or  in  need.  It  now  has  become  a  most 
divine  sympathy  and  compassionateness ;  but  long 
before  this  stage  has  been  reached  it  has  spread 
from  the  woman  to  the  man,  and  we  find  him 
becoming  more  and  more  merciful,  compassion- 
ate, sympathetic  to  all.  Thus,  at  last,  the  woman 
element  exceeds.  Messiah-men  are  distinguished 
by  their  woman-like  gentleness,  spirituality,  com- 
passion, and  yearning  tenderness.  And  men, 
everyv^here,  as  this  stage  attains,  lay  aside  war, 
which  once  so  distinguished  them,  and  become 
peaceful.  And  even  their  passion  for  liberty 
changes  from  a  passion  to  do  as  they  please,  re- 
gardless of  others,  to  a  passion  to  be  equally  free 
with  others.  But  nature  looks  ever  to  balance, 
and  as  man  becomes  more  womanly  the  w^oman 
takes  on  a  change  tov^ard  the  finer  masculine. 
She  grows  stronger  in  selfhood,  in  thirst  for 
liberty  and  influence,  in  willingness  to  battle  (but 
mentally  and  for  those  she  protects)  in  the  intel- 
lectual pow^er  to  analyze  and  separate,  in  ability 
to  manage    and   superintend.      As  in   the  lovs^er 

84 


stages  of  the  path  the  sexes  were  nearly  alike,  on 
the  masculine,  physical  plane,  so  in  the  higher 
stages  they  again  become  nearly  alike  on  the 
feminine,  spiritual,  plane.  The  attraction  of  the 
woman  is  at  last  a  stronger  force  in  the  world 
than  the  compulsion  of  the  man  —  the  Finer,  the 
Gentler  Forces  prevail. 
^af.-^T'lW^ITH  legal  m^arriage  the  Dawn- 
Thinker  has  no  concern.  Legal 
marriage  is  a  legal  form,  and 
stands  or  falls  by  its  own  legality. 
But  the  true  marriage  is  a  spirit- 
ual fact,  and  stands  or  falls  by 
the  real  spiritual  attitude  of  the  lovers  to  each 
other.  "Where  two  souls  and  bodies  really  fit 
and  ans-wer  each  other  in  tender  love,  there  is 
the  real  marriage,  where  they  conjoin  w^ithout 
this  fitness  there  is  adultery,  and  when  this  fit- 
ness fails  there  is  divorce.  And  this  without 
regard  to  the  legal  or  illegal  pronunciamento.  It 
is  with  marriage  as  with  all  things  else.  The 
law  establishes  only  the  artificial,  the  so-called ; 
it  has  no  power  to  create  the  real,  no  jurisdiction 
in  the  realm  of  spirit,  no  recognition  in  nature. 
The  attempt  to  marry  by  law  is  like  the  attempt  to 
make  royalty,  nobility,  manners,  and  the  rest,  by 
law.    The  true  King  is  not  created  by  such  clumsy 

85 


MOTHER 
LOVE 


OF 
MARRIAGE 


OF  tools  as  crowns  and  thrones,  but  is  such  by  the 
MARRIAGE  majesty  of  his  own  soul ;  the  true  nobleman  is 
the  noble  man,  the  truly  polite  are  those  v/ho 
respect  liberty  and  are  kind.  The  law^  can  create 
nothing  but  a  form  ;  it  is  helpless  to  help  marriage, 
it  can  only  usurp  and  interfere.  By  no  possibility 
can  it  make  a  true  union  more  beautiful,  pure, 
and  sweet,  but  it  can  call  a-way  attention  from  its 
spiritual  essence  to  emphasize  a  formula ;  it  can 
externally  vulgarize  it ;  it  can  externally  prevent 
it ;  it  can  license  or  even  compel  an  adulterous 
union,  and  it  can  compel  an  adulterous  union  to 
stand,  and  prevent  its  natural  correction,  w^hich 
is  the  immediate  secession  of  the  parties.  The 
conjunction  of  the  incompatible  is  the  true  adul- 
tery, and  is  condemned  as  such  in  every  kingdom 
and  province  of  Nature.  Divorce  or  suffer  is  the 
la^v. 

The  true  marriage  is  the  holiest  and  most  reli- 
gious thing  in  the  universe,  and  all  caresses  of  all 
lovers  are  perfect  in  proportion  to  the  religious 
depth  and  sincerity  of  their  moving  impulse.  The 
lighter,  sportive  expressions  of  love  are  certainly 
delightful  and,  in  their  time  and  place,  most  inno- 
cent, but  they  do  not  satisfy ;  only  the  moving 
of  the  whole  soul  to  its  foundations  in  a  deep, 
solemn,  devoted  love  can  satisfy.  And  particu- 
86 


larly  every  woman  feels  this,  because  she  is 
peculiarly  the  agent  of  love  and  religion.  The 
woman,  however  base  or  fallen,  who  does  not 
secretly  worship  the  "  grand  passion,"  as  her 
intensest  aspiration  and  holiest  ideal,  is  a  w^oman 
in  form  merely,  not  in  spirit. 

The  relations  of  lovers  are  the  most  sacred  and 
private  things  in  all  the  world.  Their  love, 
caresses,  and  union  are  the  "holy  of  holies,"  and 
the  vulgarity  and  profanation  of  public  interfe- 
rence with  their  relations,  except  by  their  express 
permission  or  request,  is  not  to  be  exceeded  by 
any  sacrilege.  If  they  themselves  profane  them- 
selves, either  spiritually  or  physically,  in  this 
their  temple,  that  is  their  ow^n  saving  sin,  which 
shall  by  contrast  show  them  the  right. 
^^vm  ■  is-^^^  s  men  move  upward  on  the  path 
they  see  more  and  farther,  and  life 
continually  takes  on  for  them  nev*^ 
and  enlarged  meanings.  And  as 
words  express  their  understanding 
of  what  they  see,  it  is  manifest 
that  the  language  must  evolute  w^ith  the  man. 
When  he  sees  what  appears  like  a  new  thing  he 
invents  a  new  word ;  but  oftener  he  sees  not  ne-w 
things  but  a  new  side  or  facet  of  an  old  thing, 
and  then  the  old  word  comes  to  take  on,  for  him, 

87 


OF 
MARRIAGE 


THE    EVO- 
LUTION   OF 
WORDS 


THE   EVO- 
LUTION   OF 
WORDS 


LIFE'S 

HARD    AND 

SOFT    IN 

ART 


a  nev/  meaning.  Thus  have  all  the  old  words 
changed  form  and  complexion  with  time,  and 
thus  will  they  continue  to  do  so  long  as  the  old 
facts  stand  and  grow  before  us.  And  this  is  par- 
ticularly true  of  the  greater  -words,  God,  religion, 
truth,  love,  marriage,  and  the  others  that  take 
hold  on  the  Mystery.  Therefore  are  old  v/ords 
often  used  with  enlarged  meanings  in  the  Dawn- 
Thought. 

IHE  "  eternel  alternation"  in  life, 
before  alluded  to,  the  contrast  of 
opposites,  is  something  all  artists 
should  heed,  and  which  indeed 
most  of  them  recognize  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously.  It  is 
in  Art  the  indispensable,  the  spinal  column. 

Nov/  Art  is  the  Interpreter ;  therefore  it  must 
be  true  to  life.  It  must  know  how^  to  touch  with 
sure  finger  all  the  stops  of  charm.  And  because 
contrast,  alternation,  rhythm,  opposition  is  the 
very  method  and  act  of  life,  its  idea,  its  pulse,  its 
breathing,  we  love  it  and  cannot  do  otherwise, 
and  demand  it  in  all  things  with  imperious  urge. 
The  bite  of  our  appetite  is  cheated  if  we  have 
much  butter  and  no  crust,  all  sugar  and  no  tart. 

Consider  that  in  draw^ing  and  painting  there  are 
two  things,  vi^hich  cannot  be  dispensed  with  — 

88 


light  and  shade  ;  and  in  poetry  and  music  two  —  a  lifr'S 
rising  and  a  falling,  which  we  name  rhythm  ;  and  jjARD  AND 
in  sculpture  and  architecture  two  —  that  v/hich  goFT  IN 
is  cut  away  and  that  w^hich  rises  in  relief,  and  we  /^rt 
shall  see  that  the  law  holds  everywhere,  even  in 
the  elemental.  And  in  the  higher  charms,  the 
mental  messages  and  spiritual  suggestions  of  a 
work  of  art,  it  is  the  same.  If  the  impression 
given,  the  emotion  aroused,  is  altogether  sweet, 
merry,  we  at  once  cloy  ;  and  if  it  be  altogether 
cruel,  gloomy,  w^e  repel.  It  is  bad  art,  and  strikes 
us  as  a  monstrosity.  Observe  how  in  the  great 
tragedies  of  Shakespeare,  the  clowns,  by  their 
fooleries,  and  even  the  quips  and  turns  and  puns 
in  the  verse,  lighten  the  -whole.  No  great  comedy 
is  altogether  comic,  nor  any  great  tragedy  merely 
horrible.  Nothing  of  that  sort  can  -win  enduring 
fame,  nor  even  exist  at  all.  Contrast  is  so  in- 
dispensable and  constant  in  life  that  the  most 
misdirected  ingenuity  and  painstaking  labor,  of 
the  most  one-sided  and  morbid  taste,  could  not 
possibly  eliminate  it  altogether. 

No  crime  can  exist  without  its  saving  grace, 
nor  any  saint  v/ithout  his  saving  sin. 

To  many,  music  seems  all  sw^eetness,  all  joy, 
but  it  is  really  not  so.  Such  music  would  be 
lifeless,  and  v/ould  truly  not  please.     Music  is  the 

89 


LIFE'S 

HARD   AND 

SOFT  IN 

ART 


OF   THE 
SPIRIT- 
WORLD 
AND   ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


Voice  of  Life,  and  vibrates  ever  with  its  contrasts. 
But  no  music  is  so  fierce  as  to  be  altogether 
bereft  of  sv/eetness,  nor  any  so  gloomy  that  it  has 
no  joy ;  and  in  the  gayest  there  is  ever  the  minor 
chord,  and  -when  pain  and  bliss  mingle  in  it  most 
thrillingly  we  have  the  most  exquisite  strains. 

I  have  noticed  since  a  child  that  w^ar-music 
made  me  feel  like  dancing,  and  church-music 
passioned  me  to  battle. 

[OW  as  in  the  Dawn  philosophy 
it  appears  that  each  individual 
is  ofFshot  from  the  Divine,  as  a 
germ,  taking  hold  first  in  the  low- 
est plane  of  mineral  existence, 
and  lifting  gradually  through  all 
the  levels  of  life,  even  to  the  highest,  may  it  not 
be  that  what  the  spiritist  calls  the  spirit-v^orld 
is  visited  alternately  with  this  ?  Whenever  -we 
find  a  law  of  nature  v^/e  find  that  it  applies  every- 
where, and  this  is  so  certainly  true  that  analogy 
becomes,  practically,  a  scientific  tool.  And  if 
alternation  holds,  as  we  find  it  does,  everywhere 
else,  may  it  not  be  that  earth-life  and  spirit-life 
are  thus  alternate  ?  The  testimony  for  spirit- 
phenomena  is  so  persistent  and  universal  it  seems 
impossible  to  ignore  it,  and  yet  it  seems  equally 
impossible  to  bind  it  so  as  to  be  found  where 

go 


left.  It  is  elusive,  yet  ever  present  and  not  to  be 
denied.  In  some  form,  and  by  some  explanation, 
it  must  be  recognized.  Let  us  theorize,  then, 
that  every  time  an  earth-life-form  is  destroyed  by 
the  change  we  call  death,  the  progressing  spirit 
escapes  and  spends  a  period  of  indeterminate 
time  in  the  spirit-world,  or  unmattered  state,  re- 
tiring to  its  chamber,  as  it  were,  and  taking  a  bath 
and  a  night's  rest  before  putting  on  a  new  suit  of 
work-a-day  earth-clothes.  Why  should  there 
not  be  a  rest-night  for  a  life,  as  for  each  day  of 
that  life  ! 

The  flesh  is  the  tool  of  the  spirit,  and  a  spirit 
fleshed  is  like  a  w^orkman  w^ith  his  tools,  but  the 
spirit  unfleshed  is  the  Vvi^orkman  v^ithout  his  tools. 

Now  many  things  in  current  spirit  evidence 
tend  to  prove  the  foregoing.  There  are  appar- 
ently, hovering  about  us,  intelligences  which 
would  communicate  with  us  but  cannot  do  so 
without  a  body.  But  finding  some  "  medium  " 
Vi/illing  to  lend  a  body  temporarily,  Vv  holly  or  in 
part,  they  can  communicate.  And  they  can  per- 
haps find  some  impressible  soul  still  enfleshed, 
and  so  act  upon  it  that  they  can  be  seen  and  felt 
and  heard  by  it  in  a  visionary  way. 

But  -why  should  the  spirit  come  back,  why 
choose  incarnation  again  v/ith  all  its  pains  and 

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AND    ITS 
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TANCE 


OF  THE 
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'WORLD 
AND    ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


battles  ?  There  are  many  reasons,  perhaps.  First, 
if  it  is  really  a  natural  law  that  the  progressing 
spirit  shall  re-incarnate,  it  will  surely  come  to 
pass  no  matter  v/hat  siren  may  sing  of  rest. 
Rest  is  delightful  to  the  tired  man,  but  he  longs 
again  for  action  when  rest  is  fulfilled.  Perpetual 
rest  is  intolerable,  even  to  the  laziest.  Children 
are  happy  and  play  is  delightful,  but  in  time  the 
boy  longs  to  be  a  man  and  the  girl  a  woman  ;  the 
baby  is  longed  for  in  place  of  the  doll,  and  real 
work  is  preferred  to  play.  And  in  normal  life  the 
man  comes  to  look  forward  with  welcome  to  the 
quietude  of  old  age,  and  the  old  man  to  the  rest 
of  the  grave.  All  natural  changes,  in  their  own 
ripe  time,  are  welcomed  and  desired,  however 
repellant  if  premature.  So,  reasonably,  after  a 
time,  the  dolce  far  niente  of  the  spirit-world 
grows  stupid  and  tiresome,  and  the  rested  and 
reinvigorated  soul  feels  the  bourgeoning  of  new 
sap  and  longs  for  action  —  to  grasp  the  tools  and 
handle  the  sword  once  more. 

For  the  earth-world  it  is  -which  appears  to  be 
the  field  of  battle,  the  w^orkshop  and  the  building- 
place.  The  spirit-w^orld,  I  take  it,  is  but  a  bo^^.'-er 
and  a  bed-room,  and  life  there  but  a  night  of  rest 
after  a  day's  work  of  earth-life. 

The  desire,  no  doubt,  counts  for  much.    Indeed, 


92 


in  spirit-life,  which  must  be  one  of  emotion, 
thought,  and  imagination  wholly,  its  power  must 
be  almost  inconceivably  increased.  Thus  it  may 
be  that  the  low^er  forms  of  life,  lacking  spiritu- 
ality, with  all  their  hopes  and  interests  centered 
on  earthly  and  material  things,  return  s-wiftly, 
perhaps  immediately,  to  the  field  of  preferred 
action  ;  while  spiritual  and  idealist  souls,  living 
in  a  sphere  of  dreams,  may  spend  very  long 
periods  betv/een  incarnations,  centuries  perhaps, 
in  the  home  of  pure  mind. 

But  if  it  be  true  that  life  moves  by  two,  the 
hard  and  the  soft,  and  if,  in  this  case,  the  soft  is 
the  spirit  and  the  hard  the  flesh,  by  and  through 
which  it  must  act  (for,  as  we  say,  every  faculty 
must  have  its  organ),  then  the  time  comes  when 
the  inner  pressure  and  longing  for  action  is  suffi- 
cient to  drive  the  soul  back  to  flesh,  and  a  new 
earth-trip  is  taken.  The  coming  into  this  life 
again  we  call,  on  this  side,  a  birth  (its  character- 
istic being  a  complete  loss  of  conscious  memory 
of  all  past  incarnations  and  spirit-land  rests),  but 
on  the  spirit-side  it  may  be  like  a  death.  As  we 
die,  or  change,  out  of  the  earth-life  into  the  spirit- 
life,  also  we  may  die  out  of  the  spirit-life  again 
into  earth-life,  and  so  on,  back  and  forth,  till 
Nirvana  opens. 

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OF   THE 
SPIRIT-  . 
WORLD 
AND   ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


OF   THE        But  I  suppose  the  death  out  of  spirit-Hfe  and 

SPIRIT-    birth  of  reincarnation  are  both  much  more  com- 

WORLD    plete  than  the  death  and  birth  out  of  earth-life 

AND   ITS    into  spirit-life,  for  this  reason  :  The  spirit  remem- 

IMPOR-    bers  its  last  incarnation  vividly,  indeed  its  spirit- 

TANCE    life    seems    but    a    continuance    of    that,    but    a 

new-born  babe  has  no  recollection  of  any  past 

existence  whatever,  at  least  not  consciously. 

Just  as  the  body  keeps  its  form  for  a  w^hile 
after  the  spirit  leaves,  and  then  gradually  decays, 
so  perhaps,  the  spirit  is  strong  and  vigorous  for 
a  while  after  death,  retaining  a  finer  portion  of 
the  matter  belonging  to  earth-life,  which  like  the 
yolk  of  the  egg  to  the  birdling  feeds  and  sustains 
it  for  a  time,  but  which,  gradually,  is  exhausted, 
until  at  last  its  active  powers  fade  and  dissipate 
and  it  drops  to  the  level  of  the  merely  dreaming, 
enervated  spirits  about  it.  For  it  appears  that 
action,  everywhere  in  the  universe,  depends  upon 
codperation  (in  unison  and  contest)  of  spirit  and 
matter,  and  just  as  it  is  true  in  this  visible  world 
that  the  creature  which  can  ingest,  digest,  assimi- 
ilate,  and  excrete  the  refuse  of  the  most  food  is 
the  creature  possessing  the  greatest  vital  force 
and  active  pov/er,  so  I  suppose  it  to  be  true  every- 
where. I  suppose  the  spirit-world  to  be  not 
entirely   destitute   of  matter,    but   that   there   is 

94 


enough  in  its  atmosphere  to  enable  the  spirit  to 
exist  and  manifest  a  certain  action,  but  that  this 
action  is  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  functions 
of  memory,  meditation,  and  imagination.  For  it 
■will  be  observed  that  most  of  the  communica- 
tions derived  from  spirits  are  of  poor  mental 
fiber.  Call  up  a  great  poet,  and  ask  for  a  poem, 
and  you  will  get  such  stuff  as  no  poet  in  this 
w^orld  would  acknow^ledge.  Nothing  of  any  im- 
portance comes  to  us  from  the  spirit- w^orld,  either 
in  art,  literature,  or  science,  and  this  even  -with 
the  aid  of  the  loaned  body  and  organs  of  the 
medium.  Bits  of  memory  and  imagination  may 
come  all  right,  but  art-work  is  creative  work,  and 
requires  the  finest,  strongest  coaction  of  soul  and 
matter. 

Therefore  spirits  are  no  artists. 

Depend  upon  it,  it  takes  a  soul  and  a  body 
together  to  produce  sound  work,  even  as  the 
Center,  the  Great  Spirit,  acts  by  and  through  the 
material  universe,  the  Great  Matter. 

I  suppose,  as  the  spirit-world  is  one  of  mind 
only,  that  there  is  no  perception  of  this  earth 
given  the  spirit  except  so  far  as  he  is  enabled  to 
enter  the  aura  or  use  the  eyes  of  those  w^ho  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  are  mediums  ;  or,  at 
any  rate,  that  his  life  is  mainly  introspective,  and 

95 


OF   THE 
SPIRIT- 
WORLD 
AND   ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


OF  THE 
SPIRIT- 
WORLD 

AND  ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


that  therefore  he  sees  usually  nothing  of  this 
world ;  like  a  man  in  a  brown  study,  unconscious 
of  all  around  him.  The  "  spirit-world,"  as  we 
term  it,  w^hich  environs  the  spirit,  I  suppose  to 
be  only  the  pictures  of  his  own  imagination,  pro- 
jected vividly  before  him  as  realities  ;  like,  only 
more  intensely  real  in  seeming,  the  imaginary 
world  of  our  dreams.  Therefore  the  spirit-world 
is  to  every  man  w^hat  he  desires  and  imagines  it. 
His  strong  preconceptions  color  all  the  landscape 
and  erect  the  dwellings  of  his  fancy.  Hades  may 
have  been  very  real  to  the  Roman  soldier's  shade  ; 
the  Norseman,  no  doubt  quaffed  his  mead  in 
Valhalla,  and  clashed  swords  on  the  plains  of 
Asgard ;  the  Indian  chases  buffalo  on  spirit- 
prairies  ;  the  Mohammedan  embraces  his  Houris  ; 
the  Christian  sings  praises  in  the  heavenly  chorus. 
It  is  *'  as  you  like  it,"  and  '*  every  man  in  his  own 
humor." 

But  as  everywhere  in  life  there  is  rhythm,  a 
rising  and  a  falling  of  vi^aves  of  onward  force,  and 
as  every  phase  of  existence  is  such  a  v/ave,  so  I 
infer  that  in  a  spirit-life,  as  in  an  earth-life,  there 
is  a  youth  and  an  old  age,  and  that  finally  even 
the  powers  of  remembering  and  dreaming  fade 
and  dissipate,  and  the  soul  is  oppressed  with  a 
sense  of  weakness   and   a  longing   for   renewed 

96 


power  and  youth.  This  felt  loss,  and  all  the  limi- 
tations of  spirit  existence,  cause  an  inclination  to 
reincarnation. 

To  be  sure,  messages  sometimes  come  from 
the  spirit-world  purporting  to  be  from  ancient 
spirits,  but  I  suppose  there  are  few,  if  any,  ancient 
spirits  there.  These  messages  are,  I  think,  mostly 
from  mischievous  spirits,  who  loaf  along  the  line 
and  find  an  idle  delight  in  practicing  upon  the 
gullibility  of  mediums  and  spiritists,  in  furnishing 
messages  and  evidences  to  order,  and  in  person- 
ating famous  individuals,  departed  friends,  saints, 
angels,  fairies,  devils,  perhaps  Christ,  or  even  the 
Deity.  It  must  be  rare  sport  to  see  ^;vhat  bare- 
faced rubbish  can  be  crammed  down  the  throats 
of  otherwise  prudent  and  uncheatable  men,  if 
only  presented  in  the  name  of  spirit.  And  ima- 
gine personating  "  Auld  Hornie,"  with  hoofs  and 
tail  complete,  and  frightening  a  plantation  darkey  ! 

Fairy  land  was,  I  suppose,  not  such  a  delusion 
as  some  think.  I  think  it  w^as  the  heaven  of 
some  ancient  religion,  the  conception  of  the  spirit- 
world  of  some  departed  peoples.  And,  doubt- 
less, to  this  day,  m.any  a  little  child,  v/hose  delight 
is  in  such,  finds  itself,  after  death,  surrounded  by 
dancing  elves  and  smiled  at  by  a  fairy  godmother. 
And  when  the  Irish  or  Swedish  peasant  solemnly 

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AND    ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


OF   THE    tells  you  that  he  has  seen  fairies,  and  heard  their 

SPIRIT-    music,  I  suppose  that  he  has  either  temporarily 

WORLD    slipped  from  earth  into  the   spirit-world  of  his 

AND    ITS    fancy  (common,  I  take  it,  in  visions)  or  else  has 

IMPOR-    seen  some  spirit  who,  for  kind  or  unkind  reasons, 

TANCE    ^s  personating  an  elf. 

I  suppose  that  v/hen  a  spirit  dies  out  of  the 
spirit-world  it  leaves  no  residuum,  or  "body," 
there,  but  simply  disappears,  or  is  missing,  slip- 
ping out  through  a  chink,  as  it  were,  into  earth- 
life  again.  And  that  the  change  consists  in  a 
forgetting  of  its  just-passed  earth  and  spirit-life, 
so  that  it  enters  its  new  body,  or  earth-form,  a 
blank  page  so  far  as  conscious  memory  is  con- 
cerned. And  this  I  take  to  be  the  universal 
method,  in  order  to  ensure  a  feeling  of  distinct 
individuality  as  before  explained.  I  say  conscious 
memory,  for  I  have  an  idea  that  the  unconscious 
memory  of  past  experience  persists  in  all  souls, 
and  affects  choice  and  actions,  and  constitutes  a 
greater  part  of  what  we  call  instinct,  the  re- 
mainder being,  perhaps,  a  sort  of  sub-conscious 
clairvoyance,  or  perception  of  unseen  relations. 

Now  a  mesmerist  will  often  be  astounded  in 
his  hypnotic  experiments  to  uncover  several  dif- 
ferent individuals  in  one,  so  to  speak,  as  if  each 
man  was  on  the  top  of  a  box,  w^ith  many  other 


men  packed  away  below  him,  to  be  produced,  one 
by  one,  when  the  lid  was  opened.  These  other 
individuals  I  would  explain  to  be  only  the  m.em- 
ory  of  other  lives,  w^hich  the  subject  has  lived  in 
time  past,  and  which  the  hypnotic  trance  has  in 
some  way  recalled  to  his  recollection. 

Growth  must  go  on  forever,  till  Nirvana ;  and  I 
suppose  that  in  the  spirit-w^orld  the  soul  does 
much  of  its  important  grov^th.  Memory  of  all 
that  has  occurred  in  the  previous  earth-life  is,  I 
take  it,  extremely  vivid,  even  to  the  minutest 
detail,  and  the  judgment  greatly  cleared  from  the 
passions  and  ambitions  which  action  imposes  on 
it  here.  The  life  is  introspective  and  retrospec- 
tive, and  as  everything  passes  in  review,  again  and 
again,  before  the  sensitive  and  attentive  spirit, 
with  nothing  to  distract  or  confuse,  occurs  that 
great  "  last  judgment  "  of  which  religionists  v/rite. 
The  God-side  of  the  soul,  so  far  as  it  is  attained, 
judges  all,  separates  the  wheat  from  the  tares, 
the  sheep  from  the  goats,  and  the  mistakes  and 
errors  are  burned  up  in  the  fire  of  remorseful 
regret  and  condemnation,  and  the  wise  and  right- 
eous deeds  are  enjoyed  over  and  over  in  the 
heaven  of  delightful  recollection  and  approval. 
The  mistakes  damned,  and  burned  up,  are  likely 
no  more  to  be  repeated  in  future  incarnations, 

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OF    THE 
SPIRIT- 
W^ORLD 
AND    ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


OF   THE    and  the  virtues  and  successes   become  an  inte- 

SPIRIT-    grally  assimilated  part  of  the  advancing,  enlarging, 

WORLD    strengthening  soul.     The  bad,  rejected,  "  depart 

AND    ITS    into  outer  darkness  "  (nothingness),  and  the  good, 

IMPOR-    accepted,  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  approval  and 

TANCE.    future  action. 

And  growth  goes  on  too,  I  dare  fancy,  in  the 
spirit-world,  by  a  process  of  loving  accretion  and 
merging.  According  to  the  Dawn-Thought  we 
are,  in  the  last  analysis,  all  one,  and  growth  con- 
sists in  the  attainment  of  oneness,  of  full  large- 
ness. Therefore  for  one  individual  to  join  fully 
and  be  utterly  merged  with  another  would  be  no 
loss,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  doubling  of  self  in 
size.  In  the  spirit-world  desire  is  prepotent,  and 
what  is  desired,  if  of  a  spiritual  nature,  is  realized 
with  greatest  ease.  Swedenborg  tells  us  that 
spirits  who  desire  to  be  -with  other  spirits  find 
themselves  instantly  in  their  society,  and  that 
higher  spirits  converse  without  words.  What 
more  natural  then  than  that  lovers  who  loved 
each  other  so  intensely  in  this  life  that  they  de- 
sired utterly  to  be  one,  should  find  their  desire 
attainable  in  the  land  of  soul  —  should  flow 
together  there,  and  become  one  indeed,  and 
inseparable. 

And  if  it  be  asked :  Which,  then,  loses  self  in 

100 


the  other  ?  I  reply,  neither.  For  if  there  be  only 
One  Individual  in  the  universe,  and  what  v/e  con- 
sider our  consciousness  of  separate  individuality 
is  only  a  consciousness  of  the  life  of  that  great  I 
Am,  clouded  by  our  delusion  of  separateness, 
then,  no  matter  how  many  others  -we  merge  ^A^ith, 
our  perception  of  our  individuality  simply  in- 
creases, and  grows  more  powerful  and  sure, 
and  we  lose  nothing  but  one  of  the  supposed 
partitions  of  separation. 

To  the  v/oman  it  feels  that  her  lover  has  lost 
objective  existence,  but  that  she  has  made  him  a 
part  of  herself,  and  feels  him  w^ithin  her  with 
infinite  content,  and  herself  enlarged  by  all  his 
powers  and  strength  and  courage,  and  this  no 
delusion  ;  and  to  the  man  it  feels  that  he  has 
absorbed  the  woman,  and  that  all  her  love  and 
loveliness  are  now  a  living  and  delightful  part 
of  his  being. 

And  every  caress  of  love  typifies  this.  Love  is 
a  species  of  cannibalism,  and  the  constant  desire 
to  be  in  contact,  "closer,  closer!"  the  clinging 
embraces,  the  penetration,  and  overdosing,  the 
devouring,  greedy  kisses,  bites  even,  the  craving 
to  reach  the  mucous  membrane,  the  heart,  the  soul, 
all  reveal  this  tremendous  imperious  urge  to  be  at 
one,  to  give  all  of  self,  and  take  all  of  the  beloved. 


OF   THE 
SPIRIT- 
WORLD 
AND    ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE. 


lOZ 


OF   THE  For  there  are  two  elements  or  impulses  which 

SPIRIT-  interact  in  human  life,  the  egoist  and  altruist.  The 
W^ORLD  egoist  is  the  male  element,  and  the  altruist  the 
AND  ITS  female.  They  both  coexist  in  each  individual,  at 
IMPOR-  al^  times,  but  in  varying  proportions  ;  and  usually 
TANCE  the  altruist  predominates  in  the  woman,  and  the 
egoist  in  the  man,  where  both  are  on  somewhat 
the  same  plane  of  evolution.  But  sometimes  the 
woman  in  form  is  male  in  spirit,  and  the  man  in 
form  is  sometimes  female  in  spirit.  Therefore, 
sometimes  the  man  v/orships  the  woman,  and 
gives  himself  to  her  in  devotion.  And  when  the 
Center  thro-ws  off  a  germ  to  form  an  individual, 
as  we  say,  the  first  thing  to  be  emphasized  is  the 
apparent  separation,  the  feeling  of  distinct  indi- 
viduality and  self-importance.  Therefore  all 
souls  primitive,  young  on  the  path,  are  intensely 
egoist,  even  to  selfishness.  But  as  the  return 
accelerates  separation  grows  less  certain  and 
distinct,  unity  is  more  and  more  felt -and  accepted, 
and  altruism  manifests  itself  more  and  more  in 
active  gentleness  and  love.  Therefore  the  primi- 
tive savage  is  intensely  a  man,  and  even  the 
primitive  v^/oman  is  man-like,  but  the  higher 
evolution  is  alw^ays  in  the  direction  of  the  woman- 
like, of  softness,  gentleness,  tender  love,  consid- 
eration, sympathy.     All  the  Messiah-souls,  who 

102 


are  near  the  end  of  their  course,  are  of  this  order. 
Consider  Buddha,  Jesus,  Emerson,  Whitman. 
Therefore,  too,  women  have  always  been  more 
religious  than  men,  and  men  have  always  felt 
that  the  spiritual  element  in  woman  was  superior 
to  their  own. 

Therefore  is  it  said  that  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  are  chosen  to  confound  the  mighty,  and 
things  which  are  not  (ideal  things),  to  bring  to 
nought  things  that  are. 

And  just  as  the  soft  oyster  forms  and  shapes 
the  hard  shell,  and  the  soft  brain  shapes  the  hard 
skull,  and  the  soft  nerve  directs  the  hard  muscle 
and  bone,  and  the  soft  water  drills  the  hard  rock, 
so,  in  every  thing,  is  the  soft  finally  stronger 
than  the  hard,  and  the  finer,  the  gentler  forces 
prevail. 

And  so  the  soft  woman  and  the  hard  man  unite 
and  merge  again  and  again  in  evolving  a  higher 
humanhood,  till  both  finally  completely  find  their 
Self  by  losing  themselves  in  that  God  who  is 
both  Father  and  Mother,  male  and  female,  the 
perfect  Egoist,  or  Individual,  and  the  perfect 
Altruist,  or  All-Lover,  in  One. 


OF    THE 
SPIRIT- 
WORLD 
AND    ITS 
IMPOR- 
TANCE 


103 


OF   REIN- 
CARNATION 


S  innumerable  multitudes  of  new 
forms  are  originating  every  mo- 
ment in  the  matter--world,  each 
calling  for  its  indwelling,  directing 
spirit,  there  must  be  a  tremendous 
current  of  attraction  setting  be- 
tween the  matter-'world  and  the  spirit-world, 
drawing  the  spirits  dcwn,  as  it  were.  Of  course 
this,  like  all  things  else,  is  according  to  some 
invariable  method,  or  natural  law,  and  doubtless 
each  spirit  is  drawn  along  the  current  of  his 
desire  to  the  form,  or  body,  best  fitted  for  him 
next  to  inhabit.  I  suppose  that  ancestors  often 
reincarnate  themselves  iri  the  bodies  of  posterity, 
which  would  tend  to  explicate  much  in  heredity. 
And  I  suppose  that  sex  (^;vhich  anatomists  tell  us 
is  more  or  less  of  what  v/e  call  an  accident,  any- 
way) is  changeable,  so  that  what  is  man  in  this 
incarnation  may  be  woman  when  next  enfleshed, 
which  might  help  to  explain  masculine  women 
and  feminine  men. 

But  I  do  not  suppose  there  is  any  return  into 
lower  forms  passed  and  outlived,  except,  per- 
haps, occasionally,  under  strong  reactive  desire. 
Buddhists  are  mistaken  in  attaching  so  much  im- 
portance to  this,  I  believe.  For  the  whole  course 
of  all  is  on,  and  reactions,  even  when  they  occur, 

104 


react  again  to  progress.  There  is  probably  an 
effectual  repugnance  to  the  returning  again  to  an 
experience  fully  outlived. 

T  will  be  noticed  that  this  view  of 
spirit-life  differs  markedly  from 
current  spiritualism  in  its  view^  of 
"  the  power,  liberty,  possibility, 
and  necessity  of  the  being,  action, 
and  passion"  of  the  disembodied. 
Spiritualism  has  different  sects,  but  all  of  them 
ascribe  immense  power,  influence,  and  authority 
to  unbodied  souls.  Some  of  them  assert  a  spirit- 
ual hierarchy,  others  describe  leagues  or  cabals 
of  spirits,  but  all  agree  that  all  human  life  is 
largely  under  spirit  control,  and  that  unbodied 
spirits  are  wiser  and  stronger  than  bodied  ones. 

The  foregoing  view  differs  from  all  this.  Its 
contention  is  that  spirit  acts  by  and  through 
matter  as  tool  and  material,  and  is  helpless  w^ith- 
out  it ;  that  the  matter-world  is  the  field  of  ac- 
tion, school  of  experience,  and  stair  of  progress ; 
that  unbodied  souls  have  no  means  of  directly 
acting  upon  "  mortals,"  except  by  borrowing  the 
bodily  organs  of  some  "  medium,"  and  then  only 
in  an  imperfect  w^ay ;  that  only  these  mediums 
can  see,  hear,  feel,  or  be  impressed  by  spirits ; 
that  mediums  are  weaker  than   average   human 

i°5 


OF    REIN- 
CARNATION 

SUMMARY 
OF  SPIRIT 
DOCTRINE 


SUMMARY  beings  (wherefore  their  sensitiveness  to  spirit  im- 
OF  SPIRIT  pressions)  but,  nevertheless,  so  v^^eak  are  the 
DOCTRINE  spirits,  even  the  average  medium  can  resist  them 
and  escape  their  influence.  That  the  life  of  the 
spirit  is  almost  altogether  subjective ;  a  matter 
of  thought,  memory,  and  imagination  rather  than 
of  will  or  action ;  that  even  these  faculties  grow 
weak  and  fade  in  a  veritable  old  age,  needing  a 
new  birth  for  rejuvenation  ;  that  the  apparent 
spirit-environment  is  projected  from  the  imagina- 
tion, is  ideal  not  real  (that  is,  not  material)  ;  that 
spirits  could  not  exist  at  all  were  there  not  a 
sufficiency  of  the  finer  forms  of  matter  available 
to  enable  them  to  continue  the  purely  mental 
functions  alone  practicable  for  them  ;  and,  finally, 
it  is  held  that  all  this  affords  sufficient  induce- 
ment for  the  return  of  the  soul  to  earth-life,  that 
pow^er  and  action  may  be  again  enjoyed,  and 
progress  continued  toward  that  goal  which  is  the 
end  of  all  living.  And  it  is  held  that  the  phe- 
nomena of  current  spiritualism,  broadly  viewed 
and  interpreted,  affords  strong  confirmatory  proof 
of  all  this. 


io6 


N  the  early  stages  of  the  path  evil 
is  the  predominant  thing,  because 
evil  is  primarily  separation  and 
distance  from  the  Center.  This 
may  be  called  negative  evil.  But 
the  secondary,  positive  form  of 
evil  is  aggression,  with  its  fruit,  inharmony. 

At  first  separation  is  emphasized  because  that 
is  the  peculiar  attribute  of  the  primary  germ. 
The  thought  to  separate  was  its  parent.  In  it 
the  apparent  separation,  which  is  the  working 
fiction  of  the  universe,  is  carried  to  its  uttermost 
and  raised  to  its  highest  pov^^er.  With  every  step 
inward  from  this,  union  increases  and  partitions 
disappear.  But  at  first  unions  are  not  harmonious, 
because  there  is  no  desire  to  form  them ;  the  pri- 
mary impulse  is  apartness,  and  selfishness  is  its 
expression  and  characteristic.  Therefore  unions 
at  first  are  only  by  force.  Selfishness  is  the  domi- 
nating instinct,  and  while  each  wants  to  be  alto- 
gether apart,  it  also  wishes  to  possess  all  the 
goods  (that  it  recognizes  as  such)  that  others 
share  or  possess.  Hence  battle  is  inevitable. 
And  battle  promotes  progress  in  two  ways  :  First 
by  destroying  forms  (death),  thus  forcing  the  in- 
dweller  to  seek  a  new  form  ;  second,  by  compell- 
ing unions.     Unions  are  compelled  in  two  ways : 

107 


WHY   EVIL 
IS    FIRST 
AND    LOVE 
LAST 


WHY    EVIL 

IS    FIRST 

AND    LOVE 

LAST 


By  devouring  or  enslaving  the  conquered,  and  by 
obliging  unions  for  mutual  defense  or  aggression. 

But  those  w^ho  confederate  for  mutual  gain 
taste  love,  and  henceforth  that  enters  as  an  ele- 
ment in  associated  life,  and  grows  larger,  stronger, 
purer,  more  inclusive,  to  Attainment. 

This  explains  why  the  law  of  lower  nature  is 
"  Might  is  Right,"  w^hile  in  all  higher  natures  the 
passion  for  right  (or  harmony)  controls  and  moves 
might.  And  this  is  w^hy  there  is  to  everything  a 
lower  and  evil  side,  and  %vhy  the  evil,  in  natural 
order,  comes  first,  and  disappears  as  advance  is 
made.  The  first  unions  are  those  in  w^hich  one 
party  is  altogether  devoured,  in  which  force  is 
carried  to  its  ultimate  ;  then  follow  those  in  w^hich 
some  selfhood  is  retained  by  the  conquered,  but 
in  slavery  ;  then  unions  in  which  tyranny  is  lim- 
ited, and  somewhat  a  matter  of  treaty,  bargain, 
and  consent,  as  in  most  governments  ;  then  unions 
of  perfect  equality,  but  for  convenience  only ; 
lastly  unions  of  pure  love  and  communism,  in 
which  desire  for  the  comrade's  good  equals  desire 
for  self-good  —  in  which  the  confederates  feel  as 
one.  And  so  it  is  with  everything  in  life  ;  the 
battle,  the  evil,  the  inharmony,  the  hard  work, 
the  disadvantages  appear  first,  and  later  come 
ease,  joy,  and  gain. 

1 08 


|HE    passion    for   greatness   is   the     THE    PAS- 
strongest   in   human   nature,   and     SION    FOR 
rightly,  for  it  is  the  current  forever     GREATNESS 
setting  tow^ard  our  destiny.     In  all 
beautiful  and  all  morbid  forms  it 
announces   itself.     Pride,  conceit, 

vanity,  tyranny,  all  worship,  and  all  devotion,  are 

explained  by  it.  With  enthusiasm  we  give  our- 
selves to  the  service  of  the  great,  and  why  ?  Be- 
cause of  irresistible  sympathy,  because  they  are 

living  for  us  that  w^hich  v/e  long,  but  as  yet  are 

helpless  to  live. 

"  And  I,   if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth  will 

draw  all  men  unto  me,"   said   Christ,  and  thus 

voiced  a  natural  law  of  lifting.     The  truly  great, 

by  their  rise,  lift  all  about  them,  and  make  them 

greater  and  richer  also.     It  is  the  meanly  great, 

those  w^ho  have  the  w^ill  to  be  superior,  as  indeed 

all  have,  but  no  perception,  as  yet,  of  the  meat  of 

the  matter  ;    it  is  these  who,   having   no  lift  in 

themselves,  try  to  appear  great  by  trampling  on 

and  lowering  those  about  them.     But  the  truly 

great    long    for   comradeship    in    greatness,    and 

know  no  purer  delight  than   the    developing   of 

every  latent  spark  of  it,  and  this  is  one  reason 

why  they  are   loved   with    such   pure    love   and 

served  with  such  passion  of  devotion  ;  for  we  all 

109 


THE    PAS- 
SION   FOR 
GREATNESS 


have  instinct  that  no  man  can  do  us  greater  good 
than  to  make  us  great,  if  by  only  a  line  and  a 
hair's  breadth,  or  v/orse  hurt  than  to  belittle  us. 
And,  because  of  the  solidarity  of  man,  every  blos- 
som of  greatness,  wherever,  greatens  us  all,  and 
enlarges  the  coasts  of  being.  No  man  may  do 
men  greater  service  than  to  make  himself  great. 

And  w^e  are  so  grateful  to  the  great,  so  helped, 
lifted,  -widened  by  them,  that  we  endure  faults, 
injuries,  crimes  even,  from,  them,  which  we  could 
not  so  ignore  in  the  small. 

The  devotion  w^hich  a  true  woman  feels  for  the 
man  she  has  crowned  her  heart's  king  is  per- 
fectly natural,  and  in  itself  healthful.  With  the 
irrepressible  yearning  of  the  race  for  infinite  en- 
largement, to  which  goal  all  our  passions  are  but 
roadsj  and  love  most  of  all,  she  feels  that  by  join- 
ing herself  to  one  greater  than  herself  in  wisdom, 
strength,  and  majesty,  she  becomes  all  that  he 
is,  plus  herself.  And  he,  on  his  part,  if  a  true 
lover,  and  moved  by  the  grand  passion,  feels  that 
she  is  his  heart's  queen,  and  enlarges  him  by 
those  qualities  of  beauty,  grace,  gentleness,  and 
spiritual  intuition  in  which  w^oman  differs  from 
and  is  superior  to  man.  For  the  love  of  royalty 
is  not  a  mistake  and  a  degradation,  as  many  ultra 
radicals  fiercely  say.      Equality  in  smallness  is 

no 


not  what  the  future  is  to  bring  us,  but  equality  in    THE    PAS- 
greatness  ;  and  a  meeting  and  concourse  of  kings     SION    FOR 
and  royal  personages  —  each  royal  in  his  or  her    GREATNESS 
own  right  over  the  things  pertaining  to  self,  each 
recognizing   and    respecting   the    dignity,   power, 
and  majesty  of  the  other  —  is  the  true  type  and 
picture  of  the  future,  w^herein  human  beings  shall 
be  as  gods,  eating  lotus  and  drinking  nectar  on 
the  hills  of  divine  leisure. 

But  a  king,  over  others,  should  be  crowned  by 
them,  not  crown  himself,  and  I  have  divine  right 
to  be  king  of  whosoever  crow^ns  me. 

The  true  king  is  leader,  exampler,  not  tyrant. 

The  passion  for  greatness  !  —  what  else  is  it 
makes  men  rush  into  w^ar  and  the  madness  of 
battle!  They  must  be  heroes  or  they  die,  and 
therefore  they  endure  for  pay,  so  scanty  that  else- 
where they  would  scoff  at  the  wage,  all  hardships, 
degradations,  and  tyranny  of  officers,  wounds  and 
horrors  unmentionable.  Because  there  is  no 
other  joy  so  utterly  rich  and  satisfying  as  the 
feeling  that  one  has  made  oneself  sublim.e,  they 
dare  all  to  taste  it,  if  only  for  the  moment. 

And  they  are  right  in  the  main,  as  the  common 
people  always  are,  centrally,  in  their  instincts. 
Vaguely,  stumblingly,  with  little  consciousness, 
like   animals,  they  walk   in   the   paths   of  great 


III 


THE    PAS-    truths  because  they  are  so  moved  by  they  know 
SION    FOR    not  \A;^hat  unseen  forces,  but  in  the   obeying  of 
GREATNESS    which  they  feel  safe. 

And  this  is  w^hy  fear  is  so  shameful  to  men,  for 
it  is  afraid  of  change  when  all  things  live  by 
change,  and  afraid  of  death  when  there  is  no 
death,  and  in  all  things  stands  coweringly  with 
its  face  backv^ard.  It  is  the  Great  Denial,  the 
Great  Reaction,  and  to  endure  it  would  be 
annihilation. 

Fear  is  the  true  Infidelity ;  for  Faith  is  the  feel- 
ing of  immortality,  the  assurance  of  deathless- 
ness,  and  Courage  is  the  same  in  its  essence. 
Your  hero,  your  intrepid  man,  is  enthused  by  in- 
vincibility. He  cannot  conceive  that  he  should 
be  hurt,  or  defeated,  or  killed.  These  may  be  for 
others,  they  are  not  for  him,  and  he  cannot  bring 
them  livingly  even  before  his  imagination.  If  he 
could,  if  they  appeared  real  and  applicable,  he 
would  be  frightened. 

Courage  is  that  glorious  prophecy  w^hich  rushes 
over  the  soul  of  man  in  moments  of  exaltation 
and  of  trial,  with  the  assurance  of  his  uncon- 
querableness  and  his  imperishability.  In  pro- 
portion as  a  man  receives  this  he  fears  nothing, 
and  dares  everything. 

Fear  is  the  faith  in  Death,  just  as  sorrow  is 

112 


faith  in  Loss,  and  these  two  are  the  wickedest 
things  in  thought,  because  the  most  paralyzing 
to  growth.  Where  one  is  in  the  full  light  of  the 
Daw^n  Thought  there  is  no  fear,  nor  sorrow,  for 
all  things  succeed,  and  Life  is  all. 

Certainly  in  the  partial  and  apparent  sense  a 
man  may  be  broken,  beaten,  slain,  but  in  the 
large  sense  this  is  impossible.  And  greatness  is 
the  affirmation  of  the  large  sense. 

And  this  is  w^hat,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
your  hero  feels,  and  what  you,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  admire  in  him  ;  for  it  is  utterly 
impossible  to  restrain  the  thrill  of  admiration, 
hope,  ^nd  dilating  joy,  we  feel  v/hen  we  see  a 
man  calmly  confident  that  defeat,  injury,  and 
death  are  not  for  him. 

Courage  is  the  affirmation  of  life. 

Each  thing  is  true  in  a  small  sense,  and  true 
also,  but  often  quite  differently,  or  even  oppo- 
sitely, in  a  large  sense,  and  it  is  the  sign  and 
mark  of  greatness  that  it  emphasizes  this  large 
sense ;  and  v/e  are  all  great  in  the  degree  in 
which  w^e  apprehend  this.  And  as  greatness 
grov^/s  the  larger  is  its  grasp  and  vision,  the  deeper 
its  courage  and  breathing. 

I  have  no  fear  that  natural  leadership  will  ever 
be  lost.     It  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  life.     We 

113 


THE  PAS- 
SION FOR 
GREATNESS 


THE  PAS-  reverence  the  great  by  irresistible  drawings. 
SION  FOR  Xhey  are  God-manifest  to  us,  the  incarnation  of 
GREATNESS  q^j.  hope,  the  vision  of  our  victory.  "We  worship 
the  wise  and  obey  the  capable  as  we  eat  and 
breathe.  W^lioso  can  lead  shall  be  follow^ed,  and 
the  greater  a  leader  is  the  more  he  feels  himself 
a  tool  in  a  strong  hand.  There  is  an  endless 
uplook  through  all  the  planes  of  power. 

It  is  this  deep  truth  which  moved  Plato  to 
place  an  aristocracy  of  the  w^ise  and  good  at  the 
head  of  his  "Republic;  "  it  is  this  that  Carlyle 
v/orships  in  his  heroes  ;  it  is  this  that  Nietzsche 
touches  in  his  "Overman;"  and  it  is  this  that 
all  governments  profess  to  foster  and  secure  by 
some  mechanical  and  arbitrary  machinery  of  dy- 
nasties, nobilities,  elections,  or  other  political 
scheme  by  -which  an  artificial  and  arbitrary  ruler- 
ship  is  substituted  for  the  natural  leader,  chosen 
by  the  spontaneous  admiration  and  corrected  by 
the  spontaneous  criticism  and  secession  of  the 
free  individual. 

This  sort  cometh  not  by  machinery,  but  by 
nature.  Truly  the  great  should  lead,  and  the 
foolish  follow,  but  the  moment  the  great  impose 
their  -wisdom  and  compel  obedience,  in  that  mo- 
ment, and  by  so  much,  they  cease  to  be  great, 

because,  instead  of  affirming  the  large  sense,  and 

114 


uplifting,  they  affirm  the  small  sense  and  beat    THE    PAS- 
back  the  inward  uplift  in  those  below  them.     For     SION    FOR 
the  great  thing,  the  important  event,  is  not  that    GREATNESS 
the  great  should  be  obeyed,  but  that  the  weak 
should   be    strengthened   and   the   low  lifted    by 
voluntarily  imitating  and  obeying  them,  yet  not 
slavishly,  but  as  men  convinced. 

It  is  great  to  compel,  but  infinitely  greater  to 
have  such  masterful,  manifest  desert  that  men 
follow  and  obey  by  irresistible,  spontaneous  flow, 
necessity  that  holds,  and  admiration  not  other- 
wise to  be  appeased. 

But  even  the  artificial  leaders  advance  the  true 
thought.  For  men  must  worship,  and  if  the  man 
they  are  told  to  look  to  is  not  worthy,  then  they 
clothe  him  with  the  imputed  virtues  of  their 
ideal,  and  so  exist  till  the  true  hero  and  king 
arrives.  It  is  better  to  worship  a  carven  post, 
made  deity  by  the  imagination,  than  to  have 
nothing  great  to  look  up  to. 

And  it  is  true  that  repression  never  finally  re- 
presses ;  the  plan  is  such  that  it  must  even  indi- 
rectly advance,  yet  in  the  end  every  will  must 
have  its  way,  for  liberty  is  the  indispensable,  the 
road,  the  atmosphere  of  growth. 

And  growth  is  happiness.  To  be  consciously 
enlarging,   expanding,   attaining,   advancing,   this 

115 


THE    PAS- 
SION  FOR 
GREATNESS 

THE  BENDS 

AND 

REACHES 

IN   THE 

RIVER   OF 

LIFE 


is  our  joy.  And  vvhere  there  is  freedom  there  is 
nothing  to  stop  gro-wth,  therefore  men  hold  it 
first,  and  greatest  of  all.  Growth  is  the  river  of 
life,  and  liberty  the  channel  in  w^hich  it  runs. 

30W  this  is  the  law  of  force  that  it 
travel  ever  in  waves  ;  a  rising  and 
a  falling  constitute  a  life.  And 
this  is  true  of  every  complete  epi- 
sode in  nature.  The  moon  waxes 
and  wanes,  a  morning  and  an 
evening  are  the  life  of  a  day,  a  spring  and  a  fall 
the  life  of  a  year,  a  cresting  and  a  sinking  the  life 
of  a  wave.  And  even  so  a  youth  and  an  old  age 
are  a  life  of  a  man.  And  at  the  end  of  an  episode 
or  a  *'  life,"  comes  a  change,  which  change,  occur- 
ring in  those  we  call  living,  constitutes  what  we 
call  death.  But  an  analogous  change  comes  to 
all  things  that  are  partial,  animate  or  inanimate, 
natural  or  arbitrary,  material  or  spiritual.  Ev- 
ery motion,  every  imagination,  obeys  the  same 
law^.  But  all  things  continue,  and  there  is  no 
real  death.  Month  follows  month,  but  the  moon 
does  not  die  because  hidden  ;  day  follows  day, 
but  the  sun  ever  shines  ;  year  follow^s  year, 
but  the  fabric  of  time  is  continuous ;  wave  suc- 
ceeds wave,  but  the  stream  flov*;'s  on.  Or  if 
oceans   of  water   and   fire    fail,   these   have   not 

ii6 


perished,  they  have  but  changed  place  and  ap- 
pearance. 

Death  is  only  the  pause  before  the  next  rising 
impulse  of  onwardness.  These  things  are  for 
times  and  for  seasons  ;  they  are  punctuation 
points.  Changes,  exchanges,  transformations,  are 
everywhere,  but  annihilation  nowhere.  Every 
end  is  but  a  beginning,  every  beginning  an  end. 
Therefore  life  is  all  rhythm,  and  herein  is  the 
charm  of  poetry  and  music  that  they  repeat  the 
rhymes  of  life.  Pulse,  pulse,  beats  the  world's 
blood  forever,  smitten  onw^ard  by  the  Great  Heart. 
T  is  to  partialness  of  view  that  strife 
and  contention  among  men  are  due. 
Each  disputant  feels  passionately 
the  truth  of  his  thesis  because  it 
is  true,  but  none  sees  the  synthesis 
which  proves  the  equal  necessity 
of  his  opponent's  thought ;  therefore  the  battle 
rolls.  But  as  growth  goes  on,  and  life  larges, 
rigid  lines  soften,  respect  and  toleration  widen 
their  borders,  and  peace  comes  like  a  da'wning. 

Reverence  the  broad  man,  for  he  is  -well  along 
on  the  path. 

But  though  it  is  true,  this  that  we  see,  remem- 
ber that  we  do  not  see  it  exactly  true,  because  we 
see  but  part,  and  see  as  parts,  and  the  partial 

117 


THE  BENDS 
AND 

REACHES 
IN    THE 
RIVER   OF 
LIFE 


TRUTH    IS 
CENTRAL; 
LIMITS  ARE 
ARBITRARY 
AND    FALSE 


TRUTH    IS 

CENTRAL; 

LIMITS  ARE 

ARBITRARY 

AND    FALSE 


view  is  alv/ays  somewhat  of  a  mistake,  the  part 
itself  is  a  mistake.  With  every  inch  of  stature, 
with  every  step  to  right  or  left,  w^e  see  more  and 
differently,  and  must  needs  correct  previous  im- 
pressions. Therefore  we  dare  affirm  positively 
only  the  truth  of  the  center.  All  religions,  ail 
philosophies,  sciences,  doctrines,  dogmas,  are  true 
at  heart,  but  the  moment  the  seer  attempts  to 
too  positively  explain  and  define  details  he  is  a 
false  prophet ;  for  these  limitations  have  no  ex- 
istence in  nature,  other  than  that  they  more  or 
less  truly  represent  the  horizons  of  his  outlook, 
the  edges  of  his  eye-scope.  All  emphasis  about 
boundaries  makes  a  lie  ;  all  limitation  makes  a 
lie ;  all  standing  still  at  a  preferred  spot  and  in- 
sistance  on  that  vista  as  final  is  stagnation  and 
extinguishment.  Buddha  saw  the  truth,  so  did 
Moses,  Socrates,  Jesus,  Mohammed,  Mother  Ann 
Lee,  Swedenborg,  Emerson,  Whitman,  and  so  do 
I.  And  you  have,  in  yourself,  a  vision  that  no 
other  may  see  for  you  or  exactly  with  you.  But 
to-morrow  comes  one  who  sees  more  and  farther  ; 
and  the  next  day  a  larger  man  than  any,  with 
stronger  eyes  and  brain.  There  is  no  creed,  no 
code,  no  definition,  no  limit,  but  for  the  moment ; 
but  all  is  life  and  the  rhythm  and  flow  of  it.  And 
this  is  ever  to  be  remembered  —  that  if  the  god- 

ii8 


like  see  true,  so  do  the  worm-like.  For  if  Jesus 
sa'w  the  truth,  also  in  his  way,  did  Judas,  and 
lived  up  to  it. 

Judas  and  Jesus  are  types  of  the  lower  and 
higher  man,  each  wise  in  his  own  outlook. 

For  if  boundaries,  limits,  distinctions,  were 
real,  separations  w^ould  be  real,  and  the  solidarity 
and  unity  of  all  things  would  not  be.  But  we 
shall  prove,  w^hen  we  take  life  in  our  hand  and 
challenge  a  barrier,  though  it  be  of  adamant,  that 
it  is  not  there,  but  only  a  mist  and  a  seeming ;  it 
fades  like  a  memory  of  a  dreaming,  and  life, 
the  eternal-moving,  the  changing-unchanging, 
goes  on. 

The  Christian  Scientists  are  right  when  they 
affirm  that  there  is  no  death,  sin,  sickness,  mat- 
ter ;  but  they  would  be  equally  right  did  they  deny 
there  was  any  separate  life,  or  any  virtue,  health, 
spirit ;  for  these  are  but  v/ords,  distinctions,  tem- 
porary fences,  map-lines,  rounds  on  the  ladders 
that  lift  us  ;  they  have  no  real  existence,  are 
equally  arbitrary  and  verbal ;  for  all  is  flow,  and 
a  shifting  and  exchanging,  and,  at  the  final,  a  melt- 
ing together  and  a  oneness,  an  overlook,  a  recon- 
ciliation, and  an  acceptance  —  God  is  all.  and  we 
are  God  —  One. 

And  this  is  Nirvana. 


TRUTH    IS 
CENTRAL ; 
LIMITS  ARE 
ARBITRARY 
AND    FALSE 


119 


EVOLUTION     ^S^£Ebk^ft^^^i  EN  love  war  because  of  the  swift- 
IN    BATTLE     ^y/^iJ)  ^^^^^Al     ness  of  its  changes,  because  ar- 
mies are  rivers  of  force,  but,  most 
of  all,  because  courage  is  its  life 
and  center,   and   courage   is   the 
most  life-giving  of  passions. 
And  the  love  of  struggle,  of  conquest,  of  domina- 
tion by  force,  dies  not  in  man,  nor  shall  die,  be- 
cause these  are  of  grov/th  and  its  methods.     But 
as  God-attainment  goes  on  the  struggle  between 
man  and  man  v/ill  grovi^  less  deadly,  freer  of  hate, 
more  humane  in  form  and  action,  and  at  last  all 
men   will    clasp    hands    and   stand    shoulder   to 
shoulder  in  a  great  army  of  industry.     The  pas- 
sion for  v^ar  will  take  other  form  and  seek  other 
outlet.      It  will  be  directed   to  the  conquest  of 
leisure,  so  that  men  may  be  as  gods  on  the  earth, 
ennobling  themselves  and  enjoying  each  other  in 
the  large  ease   and   courtesy  of  those  who  are 
equal  in  mastership  and  royalty.     But  each  man, 
full  of  force  and  beauty,  burgeoning  v/ith  life-sap, 
will  seize  betimes  the  weapons  of  his  pow^er  and 
rush  forth  w^ith  joy  to  the  manly  struggle  with  the 
elements  and  forces,  the  obstacles  which  repress 
the  divine  in  man,  the  enemies  which  brain  and 
muscle  and  heart,  in  work,  conquer. 

All  admiration  which  men  novi^  give  to  w^ar  will 

120 


be  given  to  work  ;  and  the  workman  w^ill  be  the 
petted  hero,  the  subject  of  song  and  story,  the  ob- 
ject of  love's  adoration,  the  knight,  the  deliverer. 
With  the  same  enthusiasm  now  given  to 
slaughter,  the  workman,  the  soldier  of  that  time, 
will  be  drilled,  decked,  armed,  equipped,  and  go 
forth  in  the  glamour  of  romance,  with  the  inspira- 
tion of  music  and  the  v/aving  of  beautiful  hands, 
to  the  enlargement  of  the  Kingdom  of  Man,  and 
the  subjugation  and  despoiling  of  the  alien,  the 
enemy,  the  forces  which  will  not  serve. 
It  is  daw^ning  now ;  that  will  be  day. 

T  is  this  endless  pursuit  and  upward 
yearn  which  explains  that  wonder- 
ful fact  that  in  love  the  two  parties 
are  never  equal,  that  there  is  al- 
ways a  Lover  and  a  One-Beloved. 
Were  it  otherw^ise,  were  each 
equally  worshipful  and  perfect  in  content,  then 
would  it  be  deemed  that  heaven  were  found,  and 
nothing  more  to  seek,  and  the  greater  heaven 
would  be  unattained.  But  the  clock-work  of  the 
^vorld  is  wound  to  a  larger  tune.  God  has  not 
arranged  it  so  that  any  of  his  children  shall  get 
lost  on  the  road,  or  forget  to  come  home.  Pleas- 
ure and  Pain  are  the  two  levers  w^hich  lift,  and 
they  are  ever  acting  in  sufficient  degree  and  con- 

121 


EVOLUTION 
OF    BATTLE 


OF   THE 
LOVER  AND 
BELOVED 
AND    THE 
UPLIFT  AND 
FITNESS 
IN   LOVING 


OF  THE 

LOVER  AND 

BELOVED 

AND  THE 

UPLIFT  AND 

FITNESS 

IN  LOVING 


cert  to  do  their  work.  "When  one  ceases  to  push, 
the  other  draws,  and  usually  they  push  and  pull 
together.  And  so  love  reaches  out  on  all  sides 
and  calls  continually  for  the  perfect  companion, 
the  completing  complement,  but  is  never  fully 
satisfied.  For  it  w^as  never  intended  that  we 
should  find  rest  in  any  one  friend  or  lover.  It  is 
only  when  you  love  all,  and  are  friends  to  all, 
absolutely  and  %vithout  reservation,  that  rest 
comes.     And  that  cannot  be  till  Nirvana. 

Tw^o  fragments  of  a  broken  globe  cannot  do 
more  than  faintly  resemble,  in  their  union,  the 
perfect  sphere.  An  ideal  love  is  the  mending  of 
the  shattered  sphere. 

Therefore  should  love  be  bound  by  no  rigid 
vows  or  cast-iron  forms.  Everything  unchange- 
able is  deadly  to  the  thing  it  w^ould  conserve  ;  for 
life  is  impossible  w^ithout  motion,  and  motion 
means  change,  and  change  if  it  mean  not  grow^th 
and  accretion  means  decretion  and  decay. 

Though  we  should  be  friends  of  all  and  lovers 
of  all,  yet  love  presupposes  fitness,  and  is  not 
made  possible  by  mere  resolution.  When  the 
globe  is  shattered  and  there  are  a  multitude  of 
fragments,  you  w^ill  find  that  the  one  you  pick  up 
fits  only  a  few  others,  and  fits  each  only  on  one 
side,  but  after  it  has  enlarged  by  joining  to  these, 

122 


then  there  are  more  to  which  it  may  fit,  and  so 
on  to  all-fitness.  And  so  it  is  -with  man  ;  he  is  a 
fragment,  and  his  fellows  are  fragments  of  the 
One.  Let  him  fit  where  he  may  all  those  whom 
he  can,  if  only  on  one  side,  and  so  enlarge  to 
Nirvana. 

The  power  to  appreciate,  fit-to,  and  love  many 
proves  a  soul  far  along  on  the  path. 

And  love  is  fitting  and  sympathy  is  cementing. 

But  though  loves  are  never  equal,  and  there 
is  al^vays  one  who  gives  most,  who  is  the  Lover, 
and  one  w^ho  receives  most,  who  is  the  Beloved, 
yet  does  it  often  happen  that  their  fitness  is  so 
delightful  to  them,  so  fruitful  of  joy,  that  the  soul 
has  a  foretaste  of  Nirvana,  w^herein  there  is  no 
struggle  nor  hate,  but  love  perfect. 

And  even  w^hen  loves  are  most  unequal,  still 
is  love  a  blessed  thing  to  both.  If  either  have  the 
best  of  it,  it  is  the  Lover,  who  is  the  worshiper, 
who  is  the  one  uplifted,  who  grows  and  enlarges 
toward  the  Beloved.  But  the  Beloved,  too,  is 
blessed  in  foretasting  God-hood,  in  the  joy  of 
teaching,  uplifting,  sweetening  another  life,  of  re- 
ceiving worship  and  proving  worth-ship. 

As  the  w^orld  stands,  men  are  the  Lovers  and 
the  Center  the  One-Beloved.  The  souls  that  are 
far  aw^ay  on  the   path  are  full  of  the  sense  of 

123 


OF   THE 
LOVER  AND 
BELOVED 
AND    THE 
UPLIFT  AND 
FITNESS 
IN   LOVING 


OF  THE 

LOVER  AND 

BELOVED 

AND  THE 

UPLIFT  AND 

FITNESS 

IN  LOVING 


THE 
ASSURANCE 
OF  GREAT- 
NESS 


dependence  ;  they  are  oppressed  with  loneliness  ; 
they  crave  to  worship.  To  these  loving,  worship- 
ing, is  the  chief  joy,  because  it  gives  most  rapid 
growth.  But  as  the  soul  grows  larger  and  w^iser 
it  becomes  more  like  the  Inclusive,  the  Sphere, 
who  is  always  alone.  It  feels  its  own  individu- 
ality more,  yet  more  its  vital  contact  with  all,  is 
more  content  and  happy  and  serene  in  self-hood. 
It  is  strange  how  the  same  impulse  in  life  leads 
to  most  opposite  results.  The  outer  souls  are 
necessarily  intensely  individualized,  but  this  very 
strong  sense  of  separation  makes  them  crave  con- 
nection, therefore  are  they  intensely  tribal,  grega- 
rious ;  selfish,  yet  moving  in  herds.  But  the  inner 
souls  are  so  sure  of  their  touch  with  many  that 
they  care  little  for  the  outward  assurance,  can  be 
very  content  alone,  and  substitute  an  inward,  spir- 
itual individuality  for  the  outward,  physical  one 
that  so  burdens  the  savage.  They  trouble  not 
about  society,  are  happy  and  fearless  in  solitude, 
yet  are  the  best  lovers  and  the  best  company, 

UT  every  stage  of  development  has 
its  higher  and  low^er,  and  at  first 
the  intellectual  recognition  of  the 
importance  of  individuality,  and 
content  in  self-hood,  may  go  to  an 
extreme,  and  make  the  holder  cold, 
124 


selfish,  and  isolated ;  for  the  lower  form  always 
asserts  itself  first.  But  this  lower  punishes  itself, 
and  ensures  a  reaction,  until  the  soul  becomes  gen- 
erous, benignant,  a  receiver  of  love  and  worship, 
and  a  dispenser  of  benefits.  In  the  lower  form 
the  king-souls  are  jealous  of  worship,  and  exact  it 
with  craving,  but  the  older  kings  are  sure  of  their 
royalty,  and  used  to  it,  and  care  nothing  for  the 
forms  and  signs  of  obeisance,  nor  even  if  they  are 
withheld.  Jesus  knov/ing  that  he  was  king  and 
God  troubled  not  that  men  denied  and  reviled. 
These  are  so  royal  that  they  seem,  as  it  were, 
humble.  And  the  Supreme,  the  Alone  One,  is 
troubled  nothing  that  men  blaspheme  and  deny 
him.  A  jealous  God  is  the  myth  of  a  small  mind. 
Why  even  a  great  dog  has  magnanimous  con- 
tempt for  the  barks  of  the  tykes. 

In  like  manner  those  w^ho  lack  self-assurance 
of  greatness  long  for  the  plaudits  of  their  fellows, 
but  the  truly  great,  secure  in  this  self-assurance, 
are  serene,  vyhether  fame  be  w^ithheld  or  given. 
For  the  inward  conviction  and  sensation  of  w^orth 
is  the  purest  joy  in  life,  and  where  men  have  it 
not  they  reach  out  hungrily  to  every  substitute, 
as  sick  men  seek  remedies  of  quacks.  They  are 
ready  to  bribe,  beg  or  steal  a  word  of  praise,  to 
self-deceive    their   souls   withal,   and   so   are   the 

125 


THE 

ASSURANCE 
OF   GREAT- 
NESS 


THE 
ASSURANCE 
OF   GREAT- 
NESS 


TO   BE 
GOOD 


ready-made  and  self-devoted  dupes  of  all  flatter- 
ers. And  v^uth  drugs,  stimulants,  narcotics,  they 
fill  themselves  with  fumes  of  sham  force  and 
power.  And  truly  brave  men,  grown  sure  in 
their  courage,  are  modest  and  indifferent  to 
praise  ;  but  a  man  w^ho  has  a  coward  doubt  likes 
to  be  bolstered  by  others'  conviction,  and  is 
tempted  to  bully  and  boast,  that  the  fear  and 
praise  of  others  may  inspire  his  feeble  heart. 

HOSE  who  tell  you  to  be  good  in- 
deed tell  you  well,  it  is  the  fruit 
the  tree  is  inevitably  to  bear ;  but 
those  w^ho  expect  mature  virtues 
from  undeveloped  souls  have  a 
pinched  brain  and  a  narrow  eye. 
They  are  like  fools  who  look  for  ripe  apples  in 
the  spring.  Tell  them  the  corn  bears  ears  when 
it  is  big  enough. 

And  the  fruit  is  first  hard  and  sour,  then  mel- 
low and  sweet.  And  a  useless  virtue,  or  rather 
an  unused  one,  like  fruit  kept  uneaten,  for  orna- 
ment only,  soon  grows  over-ripe  and  rotten. 
Virtue  is  not  only  strength  and  beauty  but 
service. 


126 


HE  whole  is  one,  and  this  truth  all  OF  VITAL, 
things  in  nature  repeat  to  us  in  UNITY 
ever-varying  lessons.  Everything 
seeks  unity,  equilibrium,  the  cen- 
ter; and  though  continually  thrown 
out,  persistently  returns  from 
■whence  it  came,  just  as  man  goes  back  to  Nirvana. 
Consider  the  waters,  which,  though  lifted  in  mists 
and  clouds,  drop  sw^iftly  back  through  all  their 
shining  levels  to  the  sea.  And,  if  more  slow^ly, 
the  uplifted  mountains  are  just  as  certainly  and 
stubbornly  flowing  down  into  the  valleys.  When 
we  seek  for  a  clear  partition  and  definition  be- 
tw^een  mineral  and  vegetable,  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal, animal  and  man,  man  and  God,  we  fail  to 
find  it.  Any  of  these  view^ed  centrally  is  different 
enough,  but  when  you  seek  for  boundary  lines 
they  forever  elude.  Because  they  do  not  exist. 
They  are  but  convenient  fictions,  lines  on  our 
maps  w^hich  the  fields  and  forests  they  cross 
know^  not  of.  Does  not  evolution  reveal  a  per- 
petual touch  and  blending  all  along  the  lines  of 
life  ?  Do  not  the  methods,  the  "  law^s  "  of  nature 
apply  universally  ?  Is  not  each  thing  a  type  and 
figure  of  every  other  thing  ?  Is  not  man  a  micro- 
cosm of  the  macrocosm  ?  Study  comparative 
anatomy,  and  see  how  every  nerve  and  muscle 
127 


OF   VITAL     ^^'^  bone  hints  of  the  human.     Run  sex  down, 
UNITY     if  you  can,  and  find  some  element  or  aggregation 
which  knows  nothing  of  the  power  of  the  dual 
principle. 

Motion  and  rest  are  all  of  life,  and  all  our  mo- 
tions are  in  pursuit  of  rest. 

We  all  stand  on  the  earth,  and  are  united  by 
our  touch  of  it,  and  by  the  air  ^which  ever  pursues 
us,  by  the  ether  w^hich  never  leaves  us,  by  elec- 
tric and  magnetic  currents,  interpenetrating,  by 
strange,  invisible  nervous  sympathies  which  clair- 
voyance, telepathy,  and  similar  marvels,  occa- 
sionally reveal  to  us.  We  are  united  by  our 
common  needs,  weaknesses,  passions,  by  our 
common  origin  and  destiny. 

Look  how  reproduction  unites  us.  The  actual 
substance  and  life  of  the  parent  goes  into  the 
child,  and  there  is  no  break  in  the  life.  The  life 
in  the  seed  is  the  life,  and  the  finest  life,  of  the 
parent,  and  develops  without  cut-off  into  the  off- 
spring, an  extension  of  the  parent.  Humanity  is 
like  an  undying  tree,  and  dying  individual  forms 
are  like  the  dropping  leaves.  Or  it  is  like  an  un- 
dying man,  and  dying  individual  like  the  broken- 
down  tissue  and  cells  excreted  and  thrown  away. 

And  humanity  is  only  a  limb  of  the  Great  Tree, 
or  Body,  of  Life,  equally  inseparate. 

128 


Consider  how  nutrition  unites  us  :  We  breathe 
the  air  and  drink  the  water  and  intake  the  in- 
visible forces.  The  vegetable  eats  the  mineral, 
the  animal  the  vegetable,  w^e  eat  both  vegetable 
and  animal,  and  so  the  mineral,  and  so  every- 
thing in  the  universe.  And  the  dead  are  continu- 
ally devoured  and  used  over  again,  and  resurrected 
and  made  alive  again  ;  or  rather  life  never  ceases, 
but  rises  and  falls,  through  days  and  nights,  labors 
and  sleeps,  strengths  and  w^eaknesses,  conscious- 
ness and  unconsciousness,  in  eternal  rhythm. 

Those  religionists  w^ho  suppose  that  the  soul 
never  returns,  but  remains  unchanging  in  a  heaven 
of  changeless  bliss,  or  a  hell  of  unmitigated  tor- 
ment, suppose  something  for  which  there  is  no 
warrant,  anywhere,  in  the  analogies  of  nature. 

And  those  w^ho  reject  reincarnation,  and  con- 
sider the  alleged  loss  of  memory  of  the  reborn 
soul  as  an  improbable  hypothesis,  must  remem- 
ber that,  even  from  the  most  materialistic  stand- 
point, everything  in  the  universe,  matter  or  force, 
is  worked  up,  over  and  over,  reborn  and  reincar- 
nated in  one  sense,  and  yet  the  conscious  memory 
of  past  experience  is  continually  lost  with  every 
change.  "Why,  when,  as  we  have  seen,  the  body 
and  life  of  parent  and  child  are  actually  continu- 
ous, w^hy  does  not  the  child  remember  its  previ- 

129 


OF   VITAL 
UNITY 


OF   VITAL 
UNITY 


OF   THE 
COUNTER 
TRUTH,  IN- 
DIVIDUAL- 
ITY, AND 
ITS   RELA- 
TION  TO 
UNITY 


ous  experiences  as  parent  and  ancestors?  Plainly 
with  the  new  individual  form  comes  the  new 
memory,  and  this  without  theory. 

And  men  are  united  by  labor  and  property. 
W^e  not  only  live  on  our  ancestors,  in  an  actual 
though  disguised  cannibalism,  but  we  spend  their 
money,  live  in  their  cities,  w^alk  their  streets, 
pluck  fruit  from  their  trees,  read  their  books, 
work  with  their  tools,  think  their  thoughts,  and 
carry  out  their  plans.  All  inheritance  unites  with 
the  past,  and  the  extent  of  our  inheritance  is 
beyond  all  our  measure  or  mental  grasp. 

Philosophers  are  continually  pointing  out  that 
humanity  is  a  macrocosm,  a  true  individual,  the 
Great  Man,  of  whom  man,  the  lesser  individual, 
is  a  miniature. 

|UT  though  all  things  tend  to  the 
center,  to  unity,  and  the  partitions, 
separations,  are  apparent  and  not 
finally  real,  yet  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  order  of  the  uni- 
verse, its  motion  and  action,  that 
all  these  apparent  distinctions  should  be  under- 
stood as  facts  and  carefully  respected.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  opposites  must  meet  and  frater- 
nize, or  conflict  continues.  When  we  attain  the 
ideal  society  it  will  be  one  in  which  the  separate 

130 


liberty  of  each  man  will  be  fully  recognized  and 
deferred  to  in  every  social  act,  yet  in  which  each 
man  feels  his  unity  with  all  and  relates  to  it  in 
every  private  act.  Not  till  this  perfect  balance 
and  reciprocity  betw^een  the  individual  and  society 
is  attained,  as  a  custom  and  inwoven  habit,  w^ill 
the  perfect  society  be  attained,  and  where  it  ex- 
ists, even  now,  between  two  or  more  individuals, 
there  the  perfect  society  is.  And  the  first  step  is 
to  recognize  the  free  individual  as  an  individual 
sovereign,  supreme  over  his  own.  For  the  first 
step  in  creating  order,  anywhere,  is  to  give  each 
thing  its  place,  and  the  full  properties  and  powers 
that  pertain  to  it,  preventing  at  the  same  time  its 
interference  •with  any  other.  This  results  inva- 
riably and  everywhere  in  order,  peace,  and  har- 
mony. It  is  the  natural  law  of  right,  that  is  of 
individual  w^ell-being  and  social  accord.  Any 
deviation  produces  inharmony  and  disorder. 

But  remember  that  individuality  is  only  true 
centrally.  The  moment  you  begin  to  insist  on 
border  lines,  and  define  them,  you  will  have 
trouble  ;  for  you  are  forcing  into  fictitious  promi- 
nence something  that,  in  nature,  does  not  exist. 
By  myself  I  am  one  man,  and  my  neighbor,  by 
himself,  is  another  man,  but  when  we  come  to- 
gether and  touch  we  are  not  two  but  one,  and  if 

131 


OF   THE 
COUNTER 
TRUTH,  IN- 
DIVIDUAL- 
ITY   AND 
ITS    RELA- 
TION  TO 
UNITY 


OF  THE 
COUNTER 
TRUTH,  IN- 
DIVIDUAL. 
ITY,  AND 
ITS    RELA- 
TION  TO 
UNITY 


this  is  fully  perceived  and  acted  upon  there  will 
be  perfect  love  and  harmony  bet"ween  us.  Herein 
is  the  unshakable  strength  of  Christ's  injunction  : 
"  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  But  he  does 
not  explain  v/hy,  which  the  Dav\/n-Thought  does. 
You  are  to  love  him  as  yourself  because  he  is 
yourself,  only  in  another  form.  And  if  you  do 
not  respect  that  form  you  do  violence  to  yourself 
as  well  as  him.  For  all  final  crime  is  violence  to 
self.  Assert  your  ovv^n  individuality  with  dignity 
and  delight  in  it,  and  with  equal  pride  and  joy 
assert  the  individuality  of  your  fellow — that  is 
the  true  method  of  human  association  and,  w^here 
followed,  yields  perfect  peace  and  love.  To  love 
the  neighbor  more  than  self,  as  ultra  altruists 
urge,  produces  inward  pain,  abasement,  protest ; 
to  love  self  most  cuts  off  all  those  currents  of  life 
which  would  flow  from  him  to  you  and  feed  you  ; 
to  try  to  destroy  his  individuality  by  obliterating 
him,  or  by  annexing  him  to  yourself  by  force, 
turns  those  currents  to  virulent  poison,  bitter  and 
deadly  tov/ard  you. 

In  other  words,  then,  and  herein  is  a  paradox 
and  truth  most  significant  and  far-applying,  you 
only  attain  to  unity  by  recognizing  every  indi- 
viduality, and  every  time  you  recognize  another 
individuality  you  increase  your  own. 

132 


We  are  each  one  a  pulse-beat  of  the  Great 
Heart.  The  Blood  of  Life  flows  on  in  one  con- 
tinuous stream,  but  there  is  sound  health  only 
\vhen  the  pulse  beats  are  each  one  firm  and 
distinct. 

Love  others  because  you  love  yourself! 
Serve  others  by  making  yourself  free  and  great, 
and  by  expressing  boldly  all  that  seeks  utterance 
through  you. 

[  O  the  man  permeated  by  the  Dawn- 
Thought,  noblesse  oblige  pervades 
the  atmosphere  of  his  life  like  a 
fragrance.  It  becomes  habit, 
channel,  mood,  and  unconscious 
motive.  Sublime  in  origin  and 
destiny ;  boundless  in  final  possession  ;  of  the 
same  blood  and  family  as  the  greatest,  and  certain 
to  become  their  equal ;  lofty  in  overlook  ;  infinite 
in  expectation  ;  god-like  in  assurance  of  death- 
lessness ;  how  can  he  be  small,  or  mean,  or 
ungenerous,  or  cowardly,  or  deeply  disturbed  ! 
How  can  he  be  intolerant,  or  haggle  about  small 
differences  !     How  can  he  yield  to  despair  ! 

By  the  very  nature  of  the  case  he  must  be 
great  and  live  greatly ;  sympathetic,  helpful,  and 
princely,  he  must  be  worthy  of  himself  and  his 
high  title  and  estate. 

133 


OF   THE 
COUNTER 
TRUTH,    IN- 
DIVIDUAL- 
ITY,   AND 
ITS    RELA- 
TION  TO 
UNITY 

NOBLESSE 
OBLIGE 


WE 

RETURN 

AND    REAP 


^lEWED  from  the  standpoint  of 
self,  what  great  inducement  is 
there  in  the  orthodox  outlook  for 
a  man's  endeavor  to  leave  this 
world  richer,  better,  and  happier 
for  his  having  lived  in  it  ?  Or 
from  any  of  the  currently  accepted  outlooks,  re- 
ligious or  irreligious  ?  Either  a  man  dies  and 
knows  no  more,  or  he  goes  away  at  death  to 
some  foreign  coast,  with  no  more  interest  or  con- 
cern in  the  things  of  here. 

Then  w^hy  not  let  him  make  life  tolerable  for 
himself,  -while  it  lasts,  w^ith  not  too  much  scruple 
about  others,  and  none  at  all  about  posterity,  and 
let  that  suffice  ? 

But  if  reincarnation  be  accepted  the  view  in- 
stantly changes.  A  man  may  come  back  to  live 
in  the  houses  he  has  built,  to  pluck  fruit  from  the 
trees  he  has  planted,  to  enjoy  the  -works  of  art  he 
has  created,  to  study  in  the  schools  he  has 
founded  ;  or  to  be  deceived  by  the  lies  he  has 
left,  to  be  starved  in  the  deserts  he  has  made,  to 
be  cramped  and  stunted  by  the  laws  he  has 
imposed. 

Here  then  is  every  encouragement  to  a  man  to 
leave  his  -world  beautiful,  rich,  and  free,  that  the 

joy  of  his  own  future  be  assured. 

134 


ERE  separateness  a  real  thing, 
and  did  each  individual  stand  by 
himself  as  a  new  creation,  alto- 
gether disconnected  from  an- 
cestor and  posterity,  then  would 
it  be  a  cruel  injustice,  this  w^e  so 
often  see,  men  reaping  the  crops  they  have  not 
sown,  and  suffering  for  the  crimes  they  did  not 
commit.  But  view^ed  as  a  part  of  the  phenomena 
of  unity,  the  matter  puts  on  a  different  face. 

''  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man 
dieth  to  himself,"  and  each  is  a  piece  of  all,  and 
not  only  shares  in  the  profits,  but  is  responsible 
for  the  debts  of  the  whole  firm. 

This  shareholding,  this  necessary  and  inevitable 
communism,  is  one  of  the  evidences  of  unity.  It 
is  the  same  v/ith  society  as  vi/ith  the  human  body ; 
no  organ  can  be  sick  and  not  affect  the  health 
of  the  rest,  even  to  the  least  of  them.,  and  the 
strength  and  joy  of  any  one  of  them  inevitably 
benefits  every  one  of  the  others. 

And  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  innocent  are  not  so 
guiltless  as  they  think  themselves  ;  neither  are 
the  guilty  as  criminal  as  we  deem  them.  And 
the  man  who  reaps  a  crop  may  be  sure  that  he 
once  shared  in  the  sowing  of  it. 

For  the  sower  and  reaper,  the  murderer,  the 

135 


SOWING 

AND 

REAPING 


SOWING 

AND 

REAPING 

SOME- 
WHAT  ON 
LIBERTY 
AND    LOVE 
AND    THE 
ETHICS    OF 
THE    DAWN 


victim,  and  the  hangman  are  one.  "  Whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap,"  and 
his  is  both  the  seed  and  the  harvest. 

ERE  unity  complete,  and  no 
separation,  real  or  fictitious,  any- 
w^here,  then  would  there  be  per- 
fect peace,  for  it  is  separation, 
apartness  that  is  the  under-cause 
of  conflict  and  inharmony.  And 
the  more  perfectly  you  and  any  other  merge  and 
become  one  in  thoughts,  sensations,  desires,  the 
more  perfect  the  harmony  betw^een  you.  But 
apartness,  as  we  have  before  explained,  is  neces- 
sary to  the  moving,  acting,  -working  universe ; 
there  is  a  vszorking  necessity  for  it,  otherw^ise 
would  the  universe  be  in  a  state  of  utter  repose, 
peaceful,  motionless,  and,  as  it  were,  asleep. 
All  force  would  be  latent.  The  pendulum  v^ould 
have  stopped  in  its  center.  Therefore  as  an 
acting  universe  is  desired,  the  working  fiction 
of  apartness,  of  multitudinous  individualities,  is 
necessary  and  must  be  recognized  and  maintained. 
And  this  recognition,  preservation,  defense,  and 
orderly  relation  of  individualities  is  -what  men  call 
Justice. 

And  the  permitting  of  each  individuality  to  ex- 
press fully  its  ow^n  nature,  the  impulses  that  w^ell- 
136 


up  within  it,  to  live  its  own  life  according  to  its 
own  innate  law,  to  grow  and  develop  after  its 
ow^n  kind,  this  is  what  men  mean  by  Liberty. 

The  various  great  ideas,  or  principles,  w^hich 
run  through  the  universe  have  from  time  to  time 
inspired  the  great  religious  teachers  of  the  past, 
but  usually  have  been  received  only  one  at  a 
time,  in  a  sort  of  blind  enthusiasm,  excluding 
recognition  of  the  others.  They  (these  teachers) 
seemed  to  lack  the  sense  of  proportion,  the  pov^^er 
to  do  justice  to  opposites.  Thus  Moses  was  en- 
thused by  Justice,  but  of  a  narrov/,  arbitrary, 
national  sort,  and  Jesus  was  enthused  by  Love, 
but  apparently  too  partially  and  "with  confused 
sense  of  its  relation  to  Justice. 

Not  till  Emerson  and  Whitman  do  we  reach 
the  eclectic  seer,  able  to  be  enthused  by  the 
"Whole,  and  to  view  each  part  in  somevi^hat 
just  relation  and  w^ith  tolerant  catholicity  of 
recognition. 

It  has  puzzled  devout  minds  not  a  little  that 
Jesus  came  after  Moses,  and  taught  a  new  doc- 
trine reversing  the  old.  Truly  there  was  nothing 
in  their  logic  to  justify  or  explain  such  a  thing. 
For  if  the  law  of  God  was  one,  and  unchangeable, 
as  they  taught,  and  God  was  one  and  changeless, 
how  could  Jesus,  vi''ho  they  said  was  God,  teach 


SOME- 
WHAT  ON 
LIBERTY 
AND   LOVE 
AND  THE 
ETHICS    OF 
THE  DAWN 


137 


SOME- 
WHAT   ON 
LIBERTY 
AND    LOVE 
AND   THE 
ETHICS    OF 
THE    DAWN 


a  new  and  different  doctrine  from  Moses,  who 
was  taught  by  God  and  gave  the  law  he  was 
commanded  to  utter  ?  It  was  an  inscrutable 
mystery. 

But  not  to  the  disciple  of  the  Dawn.  To  him 
the  Light,  the  Truth,  is  always  there,  and  always 
the  same,  but  a  man's  perception  of  it  depends 
on  the  quality  of  his  eye-sight.  Moses  and  Jesus 
both  saw  the  same  thing,  which  was  indeed  al- 
ways there  to  see,  but  Jesus  saw  it  more  broadly 
and  clearly,  and  with  better  understanding,  be- 
cause he  -was  older  on  the  path.  And  Emerson 
saw^  it  better  still,  for  exactly  the  same  reason. 

(And  perhaps  Emerson  was  Jesus  reincarnated, 
an  intellectual  Jesus  instead  of  an  emotional  one, 
and  perhaps  Jesus  was  the  reincarnated  Moses, 
each  correcting  the  mistakes  of  a  previous  and 
low^er  vision  —  but  this  is  a  guess-saying.) 

And  the  impossibility  of  ever  finally  defining 
right  and  wrong  is  explained,  because  these  things 
pertain  to  the  relations  of  individuals,  and  profess 
to  define  their  boundaries.  But,  as  w^e  have 
seen,  such  boundaries  do  not  really  exist,  but 
there  is  an  endless  touching,  blending,  and  flow- 
ing together  throughout  all  nature  —  One,  not 
many  as  it  seems.  Therefore  the  Science  of 
Right,  however  useful  and  necessary  in  a  general 

138 


and  practical  way,  is  only  a  fiction,  based  on  and 
explaining  other  fictions,  and  not  the  awful  and 
eternal  verity  the  doctors  once  imagined  it. 
And  indeed,  of  late  years,  few  men  of  thought 
and  kindliness  have  failed  to  see  that  truth  and 
falsehood  and  right  and  wrong  are  interchange- 
able and  relative  things,  varying  ever  with  the 
standpoint  and  view-point  of  the  observer. 

And  in  the  Dawn-Thought  all  things  are,  at 
last,  but  one  thing,  and  that  one  thing  altogether 
good  and  true. 

And  this  new  view  diminishes  almost  to  a  van- 
ishing point  the  suspicion,  bitterness,  and  hatred 
bet-ween  men. 

What  then,  it  will  be  asked,  if  right  and  wrong 
are  fictions  still  they  are  incessantly  necessary  in 
practical  life,  for  the  recognition  of  the  individu- 
alities is  impossible  without  them,  cannot  then 
the  Daw^n-Thought  help  us  to  a  clearer  and  larger 
perception  of  the  Right  in  a  great  and  final  sense  ? 
Most  assuredly,  both  in  a  proximate  and  in  an 
ultimate  sense  it  gives  the  guiding  word.  In  the 
largest  sense  it  teaches  that  God  is  one  and  all, 
and  all-good,  and  the  doer  of  all ;  therefore  that 
everything  is  finally  right  and  to  be  accepted  in 
reconciliation,  —  that  in  the  ultimate  there  is  noth- 
ing anywhere  but  the  Divine  Existence  and  this, 

139 


SOME- 
WHAT  ON 
LIBERTY 
AND  LOVE 
AND   THE 
ETHICS    OF 
THE    DAWN 


SOME- 
WHAT ON 
LIBERTY 
AND  LOVE 
AND  THE 
ETHICS  OF 
THE  DAWN 


properly  speaking,  neither  good  nor  bad,  but 
simply  itself. 

But  in  the  proximate  and  practical  its  teaching 
is  still  definite  and  strong,  and  in  the  large  sense 
noble  and  high.  Right,  ii  the  practical,  consists 
in  establishing  harmony  by  the  wise  and  balanced 
recognition  of  the  tv/o  great  principles  of  univer- 
sal action  —  individuality  and  unity.  Every  les- 
son in  the  Dawn-Thought  inspires  liberty  and 
dignity  in  the  disciple,  and  the  eager  desire  to 
promote  liberty,  and  dignity  in  every  associate. 
Therefore  it  is  peculiarly  just,  both  in  the  letter 
and  spirit,  in  all  its  expressions.  And  liberty  and 
justice  being  spontaneous  and  basic  -with  it,  noth- 
ing is  more  inevitable  than  that  its  active  expres- 
sion should  be  loving.  For  v/here  liberty  is 
natural  and  justice  spontaneous,  so  that  both  are 
assured,  love,  which  is  the  next  in  higher  order, 
groves  like  a  plant  in  its  native  clime  and  soil. 

Nov/  Love,  practically,  is  the  voluntary  disre- 
gard and  abandonment  of  individual  emphasis  in 
the  reach  toward  unity.  Where  our  individuality 
is  denied,  or  invaded,  v/e  jealously  assert  and 
fiercely,  desperately  defend  it.  But  when  the 
neighbor  gladly  and  cordially  admits  our  individu- 
ality, and  its  rights,  and  with  willing  justice  gives 
it  all  that  belongs  to  it,  we  feel  ourselves  melting 


140 


toward  him,  and  a  very  little  makes  us  flo-w  to- 
gether in  mutual  love.  We  no  longer  are  jealous 
to  be  apart,  we  are  more  than  willing  to  unite. 

And  so  it  comes  about  by  the  usual  paradox, 
that  by  gladly  and  constantly  cultivating  liberty 
and  justice,  v/hich  on  the  face  of  them  are  against 
unity  and  make  for  separateness,  we  instantly 
and  to  the  uttermost  inspire  love,  which  is  the 
hunger  and  thirst  for  unity.  Therefore  the  first 
step  in  the  practical  Right,  yes,  and  the  second 
step,  and  the  last  step,  is  to  generously,  and  with 
enthusiasm,  cultivate  the  liberty  of  every  man  co- 
equally  with  his  fellows  ;  for  w^hile  liberty  means 
the  expression  of  the  utmost  difference,  such  ex- 
pression always  means  grov/th,  and  growth  is 
always  toward  the  Center,  therefore,  finally,  ex- 
tremes meet  and  a  reconciled  harmony  betv/een 
individuality  and  unity  is  attained. 

Therefore  be  free  and  set  free,  that  growth  go 
on  and  love  be  perfect. 

For  the  Dawn-Thought  is  the  Religion  of 
Grov/th,  and  all  its  ethics  may  be  summed  up  in 
the  injunction  to  grow,  to  welcome  grow^th,  to 
keep  the  w^ay  open  for  growth ;  for  so  shall 
human  life  be  large  and  generous  and  happy  and 
free. 

And  in  this  the  Dawn-Thought  religion  differs 
141 


SOME- 
WHAT ON 
LIBERTY 
AND  LOVE 
AND  THE 
ETHICS  OF 
THE  DAWN 


SOME- 
WHAT   ON 
LIBERTY 
AND  LOVE 
AND    THE 
ETHICS    OF 
THE    DAWN 


CON- 
SCIENCE 


utterly  from  the  older  religions,  whose  chief  busi- 
ness was  to  stop  the  soul  at  a  certain  tavern  and 
tell  it  the  journey  ended  there,  and  to  go  on 
further  was  destruction,  and  even  to  look  further 
forbidden.  Paul  rebuking  the  Athenians  for  seek- 
ing ever  some  new  thing,  was  the  type  of  the  class. 
But  the  Dawn-Thought  tells  you  it  is  not  final, 
nor  is  anything  final  —  go  on,  go  on  forever,  till 
Nirvana  !  And  perchance  even  that  is  not  final, 
but  only  a  greater  rest  before  the  commencing  of 
a  new  and  greater  cycle, 

HE  moral  intuition  of  humanity 
has  always  been  that  conscience 
was  a  guide  to  be  followed  in  ques- 
tions of  right,  w^hile  casuists  have 
plausibly  argued  that  its  guidance 
w^as  worthless  because  not  the 
same  in  different  individuals,  nor  in  the  same 
individual  at  different  times.  But  the  Dawn- 
Thought  explains  and  reconciles  these  by  show- 
ing that  the  growth  of  the  individual  makes  a 
continuous  change  in  his  view  of  right,  and  yet  he 
must  needs  ever  follow  the  new  vision  as  it  is 
given  him,  but  discreetly  and  prudently,  not  slav- 
ishly as  if  it  were  all  truth  for  all  time.  For  con- 
science, like  everything  else,  grow^s  with  our 
growth. 

142 


RECONCILED  harmony  between 
individuality  and  unity,  so  that 
each  has  the  fullest  possible  recog- 
nition co-equal  with  the  other,  we 
have  seen  to  constitute  the  practi- 
cal Right  in  the  affairs  of  individu- 
als ;  and  exactly  the  same  constitutes  the  right 
relation  betw^een  societies,  which  are  merely  in- 
dividuals of  one  degree  greater  complexity.  And 
affection  betw^een  societies  is  obtained  in  exactly 
the  same  way  as  in  the  case  of  individuals,  by 
making  no  overt  effort  toward  friendship,  but  by 
sympathetically  and  cordially  admitting  and  en- 
couraging difference.  If  in  my  relations  with  a 
foreigner  I  speak  his  language,  and  show  my 
familiarity  with  its  literary  treasures,  if  I  sing 
his  country's  songs,  and  reveal  a  hearty  apprecia- 
tion of  the  many  excellences  of  his  native  land, 
then  is  his  heart  warmed  toward  me,  and  he  is 
equally  ready  to  do  justice  to  the  merits  of  my 
country.  For  the  common  sense  of  the  matter  is 
that  societies  are  composed  of  units,  and  all  trans- 
actions bet'^Areen  them  are  conducted  by  units, 
and  whatever  conduct  ensures  harmony  betw^een 
men  is  the  conduct  that  ensures  harmony  be- 
tween societies  of  men. 

The  spirit  of  liberty  expressed  by  justice  first, 
143 


THE  LAW 
OF  RIGHT 
BETWEEN 
SOCIETIES 


THE  LAW 
OF  RIGHT 
BETWEEN 
SOCIETIES 


OF   WAR 
AND   PEACE 


and  then  comes  love  of  itself,  v/ithout  effort  or 
seeking,  and  this  alike  between  single  men  or 
groups  of  men. 

Christ  was  enthused  by  love  and  gave  the  com- 
mandment *' Love  one  another,"  but  love  never 
thrives  where  freedom  is  repressed.  Had  he  en- 
joined, instead,  the  enthusiasm  for  equal  liberty, 
he  need  not  have  mentioned  love.  In  this  case 
the  longest  Vv/'ay  round  would  have  been  the 
nearest  way  home.  Free  men  are  natural  com- 
rades, and  just  men  love  each  other  by  grateful 
impulse.  For  love  is  the  most  natural  and  spon- 
taneous thing  in  the  world  to  all  higher  natures, 
and  only  injustice  or  unfitness  prevents  it,  and 
where  unfitness  or  injustice  confronts  him  one 
cannot  love,  let  him  try  as  he  may. 

Love  never  comes  by  obeyed  commands  but  by 
fulfilled  conditions. 

HAT  apartness  be  maintained  we 
have  seen  is  necessary,  and  there- 
fore is  complete  harmony  in  the 
universe  impossible,  for  harmony 
means  unity.  But  an  approximate 
harmony  may  be  obtained  where 
the  separates  not  only  differ  but  agree  to  differ, 
and  give  each  other  equal  liberty  to  differ,  rejoi- 
cing in  each  other's  difference.     But  even  this  is 

144 


not  possible,  except  in  certain  limited  spheres,  OF  WAR 
among  those  souls  which  have  progressed  enough  AND  PEACE 
to  feel  the  need  of  it  and  to  be  capable  of  it.  The 
universe  is  full  of  souls  in  all  stages  of  growth, 
and  among  all  those  who  do  not  feel  the  need  of 
striking  a  balance  of  differences,  conflict  is  in- 
evitable. Therefore  "War  must  alv/ays  be  in  the 
v/orld,  and  therefore  War  is  justified  and  right. 

War  is  one  of  those  evils  which,  like  all  other 
evils,  given  the  necessity  for  apartness,  which  is 
the  parent  of  evil,  are  unavoidable  and  must  be 
reconciled  to.  Nov/  Evil,  in  the  broad  sense,  is 
simply  that  w^hich  opposes  us,  it  is  resistance, 
active  or  inert.  It  is  the  foil,  the  negative,  the 
opposite,  the  failure,  the  defeat.  But  because 
apartness  is  necessary,  and  because  opposition  is 
that  by  which  the  order  of  the  universe  stands, 
evil  is  really  good,  and  not  to  be  finally  condemned 
but  accepted.  It  is  not  a  real  thing,  but  only  a 
change  of  light,  of  position,  of  relation.  It  is  only 
the  good  in  another  form,  and  constantly  chan- 
ging places  w^ith  it  in  a  v/eaving  dance.  Evil  being 
the  opposition,  or  other  leg,  is  alv/ays  present, 
and  always  w^ill  be  present  in  exactly  equal  pro- 
portions with  the  good.  It  is  altogether  elusive 
and  incompressible,  and  like  the  magician's  coin 
disappears  in  one  pocket  only  to  be  found  in  an- 

^45 


OF  "WAR  other.  We  shall  never  escape  it  except  in  one 
AND  PEACE  vvay  —  by  admitting  and  accepting  it  as  good,  by 
being  reconciled  to  it.  But,  and  herein  is  a 
deeper  mystery,  this  acceptance  is  to  be  only 
spiritual  and  inward  ;  outw^ardly  we  must  resist 
the  evil  in  order  to  get  its  good.  V^e  must  be 
glad  of  our  enemy  and  rejoice  in  him,  but  keep 
him  an  enemy  still. 

Now  most  religionists  have  made  the  strange 
mistake  that  evil  is  a  real  and  constant  thing,  in- 
hering in  certain  acts,  and  therefore  have  taught 
much  falsehood  and  w^rought  much  woe.  Having 
declared  that  God  w^as  altogether  good,  and  evil 
altogether  evil,  nothing  remained  for  them,  logi- 
cally, but  to  deny  that  God  was  the  author  of  evil 
and  to  create  another  person  who  should  father 
it.  Almost  all  religious  errors  and  superstitions 
have  gro-wn  out  of  this  one  mistake.  And  with 
the  outgrow^ing  of  this  colossal  blunder  a  w^on- 
derful  freedom  and  gladness  must  come  to  men. 
And  this  is  the  glad-tiding  of  the  Dawn.  For  the 
Da-wn  is  but  the  light  which  gradually  breaks  in 
upon  us  as  this  huge  night  of  mistake  is  out-lived. 

Evil  is  the  opposition,  but  it  is  not  finally  evil 
unless  it  succeed  and  defeat  us,  but,  as  we  have 
seen,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  real  defeat  in  the 
universe.      We   talk   of   defeats    and   failures   in 

146 


these  petty  lives  of  ours,  but  in  the  long  run,  and    OF  WAR 
the  wide  circle,  all  works  for  us,  and  pushes  us    AND    PEACE 
on  to  perfect  victory  ;  —  for  w^e  are  of  the  One  and 
cannot  fall  out. 

Now^  God  is  good,  and  the  name  means  that, 
and  the  Devil  (or  D-evil)  is  the  evil,  and  the 
name  reveals  it.  But  the  evil  is  only  a  fiction, 
like  separateness,  right  and  wrong,  and  all  terms 
that  relate  to  apartness.  And  so  the  devil  as  a 
personification  of  the  evil  is  only  a  fiction  and  the 
greatest  of  them  (the  "Father  of  Lies");  he  is 
simply  all  apartness,  and  the  contentions  caused 
by  apartness,  poetically  personified  ;  he  is  a  fallen 
angel,  the  enemy  with  which  God  contends,  be- 
cause he  is  the  fulcrum  on  which  God  acts,  he  is 
the  apartness  which  renders  Divine  action  pos- 
sible. He  is  indispensable,  and  invaluable,  yet  a 
fiction  still  —  a  mere  working  convenience. 

The  devil  is  evil,  and  Hell  is  the  torment  w^hich 
is  caused  by  faith  in  evil  as  a  thing  to  turn  back 
to,  a  real  and  triumphant  thing.  For  the  good  of 
evil  is  only  brought  out  through  resistance  ;  those 
-who  believe  it  a  good  thing  w^ithout  resistance 
go  down  into  hell,  and  those  who  fight  it,  but  as 
pessimists,  believing  in  its  victorious  power,  taste 
hell.  There  is  a  curious  confusion  of  interpreta- 
tion of  the  w^ord  hell,  variously  as  the  grave  and 

147 


OF  WAR 
AND    PEACE 


as  a  place  of  torture.  But  hell  is  both.  Evil  is 
negation,  and  if  a  real  thing  w^ould  be  a  no-thing 
(there  seems  no  way  to  express  it  except  by  this 
paradox)  annihilation,  utter  death,  and  hell,  the 
place  of  evil,  woufd  be  the  grave  of  the  utter 
death.  But  there  is  no  death,  no  failure,  but 
those  ^who  believe  in  them  as  real  suffer  fiery 
torture,  are  gnawed  by  an  undying  worm,  and 
the  place  of  evil  is  to  them  a  place  of  torment. 

As  the  very  action  of  the  universe  depends 
upon  opposition  it  follows  that  all  life  is  a  struggle, 
a  battle,  and  this  is  observed  as  a  fact.  Darwin, 
in  his  magnificent  books,  has  shown  that  every- 
where is  a  struggle  for  existence,  a  series  of 
battles,  and  that  in  each  battle  the  "  fittest," 
(that  is  the  best  fighters  under  the  conditions) 
survive.  Therefore  does  this  universal  battle 
force  men  ever  onward,  by  fear  and  hope  of 
escape,  and  courage,  and  lust  of  conquest,  on  the 
path.  And  not  only  men,  but  all  things,  for  the 
war  is  for  all,  and  the  same  lav/s  act  on  all,  and 
the  same  end  is  before  all,  and,  though  armistice 
and  truce  are  frequent,  peace  is  never  declared. 

War  is  the  concentrated  expression  of  evil,  and 
so  we  perceive  again  the  paradox  hold,  and  that 
agency,  which  on  the  face  of  it  is  all  bad,  develop 
all  the  virtues  of  character.      Of  course  v/ar  is 

148 


here  spoken  of  in  the  broad  sense,  but  even  war  Qp  -^^  a  R 
in  the  narrow  and  special  sense  of  military  AND  PEACE 
struggle  between  men  produces  the  same  result. 
In  itself  the  sum  of  all  human  crimes,  it  is  still 
obliged  by  its  very  necessities  to  contradict  itself 
and  bear  beautiful  fruits  of  virtue.  War  between 
men  develops  courage,  the  sublimest  of  virtues, 
fortitude,  quickness  of  resource,  steadiness  "of 
hand,  keenness  of  eye,  exaltation  of  emotion,  but, 
strangely  enough,  the  greatest  force  of  its  effect 
is  directly  counter  to  itself.  \¥ar  is  separation 
carried  to  its  bitterest  extreme,  yet  the  necessities 
of  war  require  in  each  army,  considered  by  itself, 
the  intensest  unity  and  most  devoted  and  loyal 
comradeship.  The  ideal  army  is  one  that  thinks, 
wills,  and  moves  as  one  individual.  In  military 
nations  this  esprit  de  corps  becomes  a  sort  of 
religion,  w^ith  the  flag  for  a  god  and  the  comrade 
for  the  neighbor,  the  enemy  for  the  devil.  In  no 
other  cooperation  ever  attempted  between  men 
has  the  unity  of  military  organization  been  real- 
ized. The  only  thing  approaching  it  has  been  in 
the  mental  v^ar  between  certain  religious  sects. 
In  fine  it  appears  that  unity  and  separateness  must 
alw^ays  balance  like  all  other  opposites  ;  and  if  a 
great  and  dangerous  breach  of  unity  shows  itself, 
then  is  the  quantity  and  quality  of  unity  on  each 

149 


OF  WAR  side  of  the  great  separation  increased,  while  if, 
AND  PEACE  on  the  contrary,  the  breach  heals  and  peace  is 
declared,  then  the  war  is  diffused  among  the  dis- 
persed warriors  of  each  army,  before  so  united, 
and  goes  on  in  a  smoldering  form  in  quarrels 
and  separations  between  erstwhile  comrades. 

Now  it  is  a  la^v  of  extremes  that  they  develop 
and  merge  into  their  opposites  by  natural  neces- 
sity. So  war  carried  to  extreme  develops  peace. 
Not  only  is  the  peace  between  comrades  in  arms 
greater  than  betw^een  citizens,  but  everything  else 
about  war  tends  to  the  same  result.  Conquest 
carried  to  its  ultimate,  the  conquest  of  the  world, 
necessarily  -sA^ould  end  war.  So  does  armed  re- 
sistance to  the  conqueror,  carried  to  its  ultimate. 
And  it  has  long  been  seen  that  perfection  in  mili- 
tary weapons  must  end  the  use  of  them,  for  an 
irresistible  w^eapon  could  not  and  would  not  be 
resisted. 

And  so  war,  we  see,  is  ever  obliged  to  deny 
itself  and  declare  for  peace  ;  but  peace  is  no  better 
off,  for  it  is  in  perpetual  opposition  to  war,  and 
opposition  itself  is  war,  and  to  prevail  it  must 
contend  and  conquer,  therefore  the  acquisition 
and  action  of  peace  is  war  in  another  form.  It  is 
our  old  lesson  of  the  hard  and  the  soft,  over 
again,  and  only  another  form  of  it.  „  War  is  hard, 

150 


and  peace  soft,  and  back  and  forth,  in  weaving      Qp    ta/a r 
dance  and  shifting  masque,  these  characters  go,      AND    PEACE 
changing  names  and   places  every  moment,  yet 
always   carrying   on    the   same   old    play  in   two 
equal  acts, 

"  Peace,  peace,  w^hen  there  is  no  peace,"  and 
yet  always  as  much  of  it  as  of  -war. 

"  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword,"  said 
Jesus,  and  therein  expressed  the  truth  that  the 
most  peaceful  doctrine  must  contend  for  its  ex- 
istence, and  will  ensure  war  to  its  advocates 
equally  with  the  most  ferocious. 

We  tell  men  to  be  calm  when  annoyed,  and  we 
do  well,  for  it  is  distressful  and  undignified  to  see 
a  strong  man  contend  with  pigmies,  yet  the  battle 
■which  the  superior  man  suppresses  on  the  sur- 
face, when  he  is  patient  and  serene  under  tor- 
ment, is  only  driven  w^ithin  and  translated  to 
another  plane.  Instead  of  irritably  contending 
w^ith  his  trials,  he  now  battles  w^ith  himself  and 
his  desire  to  groan  and  reproach.  Always,  and  in 
everything,  in  some  form,  open  or  concealed, 
physical,  mental,  or  spiritual,  war  and  peace 
must  be  equally  vindicated.  And  the  form  of 
our  battle  reveals  the  height  of  our  growth ; 
the  low^er  man  fights  brutally  and  the  higher 
man  spiritually,  but   neither  can  escape  the  is- 

151 


OF   WAR     ^^^'  ^^^  each  must  use  the  weapon  fitted  to  his 

AND    PEACE    ^^^^'  ....  .      ^. 

Let  not  the   friend   of  peace   be   discouraged. 

The  fact  that  he  loves  peace  shows  that  he  is 
becoming  ready  to  live  it  and  fight  for  it.  Let 
him  join  the  army  of  peace  and  stand  valiantly  to 
his  guns.  He  is  right  and  will  prevail  in  the 
battle  he  seeks.  But  let  him  not  despise  his 
enemy,  but  love  him,  for  he  also  is  right,  and  cer- 
tain of  his  victory,  in  his  own  time  and  place. 

For  there  are  two  pillars  on  which  the  world 
stands,  and  the  name  of  one  is  War  and  the  name 
of  the  other  Peace. 

And  the  practical  ethic  of  all  this  —  how  shall 
we  apply  to  human  life  to-day  ?  The  first  obvi- 
ous fact  is  that  it  reproves  those  who  confidently 
look  and  build  for  millennial  peace  to  embrace  all 
men  and  all  living  creatures.  Absolute  peace  is 
absolute  pause  and  inaction,  and  is  impossible 
while  the  universe  remains.  And  even  that  lim- 
ited and  practicable  peace  which  means  equal 
liberty  to  grow  and  be,  agreement  in  difference,  is 
only  possible  w^here  the  parties  to  it  have  grov^n 
sufficiently  to  comprehend  its  need,  its  nature, 
and  conditions. 

To  preach  peace  to  every  creature  is  to  preach 
revolution   against    Nature  —  absolute   folly   and 

152 


\vasted  force.  Will  the  orbits  of  the  world  change  qF  W^AR 
if  you  tell  them  ?  Will  the  weasels  and  the  night-  AND  PEACE 
ingales  live  in  a  happy  family  because  of  Tol- 
stoi? No  more  will  undeveloped  man  give  up 
might  as  his  law  of  right.  Yet  with  him  preach- 
ing is  not  idle,  for  it  is  one  of  the  agents  of  his 
grow^th,  yet  he  must  have  his  time  to  grow 
though  it  be  ten  thousand  years.  And  it  is  v/ell 
for  him,  -when  he  aggresses,  that  force  should 
defend  against  his  force,  and  so  force  neutralize 
itself. 

And  peace  to  the  animals  ?  The  Buddhist  can 
easily  enough  not  kill  the  tiger,  but  the  tiger  'will 
none  the  less  kill  him  and  eat  him,  too.  The 
tender-hearted  farmer  may  keep  gun  and  ferret 
and  snare  from  his  rabbits,  and  they  will  reward 
him  by  increasing  and  multiplying  and  devouring 
his  crop  to  the  stubble.  You  may  keep  cat  and 
trap  away  from  your  mice,  but  they  will  enter 
into  no  compact  to  respect  your  property  in  fur- 
niture, dress,  and  provisions.  And  what  would 
it  profit  the  oxen  and  sheep  if  the  tribes  of  men 
did  not  enslave  them,  or  rob  them,  or  eat  them, 
but  simply  fenced  them  off  the  earth  ?  No,  it  is 
impossible  !  War  betw^een  man  and  the  brutes 
must  go  on. 

And  equally  impracticable  are  the  .schemes  of 

153 


OF  WAR  *h°se  dreamers  Vvho  suppose  that  by  some  grand 
AND  PEACE  stroke  of  legerdem.ain  —  all  government,  no  gov- 
ernment, expropriation,  fiat-money,  universal  love, 
or  what  not,  they  could  secure  absolute  peace 
and  happiness  to  all  men.  Their  schemes  are 
reasonable  and  sound  enough,  and  any  one  of 
them  V70uld  probably  do  the  work  v/ere  the  neces- 
sary foundation  beneath  it  —  and  this  is  the  very 
thing  these  dreamers  ignore.  They  must  have 
universal  harmony  and  cooperation  before  any 
one  of  these  schemes  can  be  universally  practi- 
cable, and  given  that  the  scheme  itself  has  little 
significance. 

Shall  we  then  pessimistically  lose  hope  ?  Not 
at  all,  we  must  simply  be  reasonable  and  build  on 
sure  foundations  of  eternal  nature.  The  first 
essential  of  practical  right  we  found  was  the 
recognition  of  our  unity  with  every  man  and  yet 
of  his  separateness  —  a  glad,  just  recognition  of 
his  equal  liberty.  Nov^  just  so  many  individuals 
as  can  understand  this  truth  and  mutually  apply 
it  can  associate  together  and  live  harmoniously 
one  V7ith  another  in  sympathetic  peace  —  and  no 
more.  The  others  must  and  will  go  on  fighting 
till  hard  knocks  teach  them  to  respect  and  help 
each  other. 

And  these  little  Utopian  bands,  at  harmony  at 

154 


home,  will  have  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in 
a  foreign  war  -with  the  tyranny,  aggression,  and 
unrest  around  them.  And  -when  at  last  they  pre- 
vail, as  they  surely  will,  and  all  men  grow  into 
like  harmony  one  with  another,  then  'will  it  be 
found  that  war  has  taken  other  forms  —  indus- 
trial campaigns  of  conquest  over  lower  nature, 
and  spiritual  battles,  "within,  now  undreamed  of. 
UT  one  thing  needs  restatement 
explanatory.  While  opposites  are 
coequal  in  an  acting  universe  their 
equality  breaks  do-wn  at  just  one 
point  — its  final  reality.  So  soon 
as  the  need  for  action  disappears 
it  is  seen  that  the  Opposite  is  a  vv'orking  fiction, 
a  "man  of  straw,"  introduced  "for  the  sake  of 
the  argument."  Separateness,  duality,  hate,  evil, 
war,  these  are  unreal,  for  the  Real  is  One,  the 
Good,  Peace,  the  Everlasting  All.  And  in  that 
thought  there  is  fixity  and  rest. 

I  HE  recognition  of  opposites  in 
their  just  balance  and  proportion, 
in  reconciliation  and  unity,  is  the 
ethic  of  the  Dawn-Thinker.  For 
opposites  are  in  everything  and 
equally,  but  in  the  bits  and  frag- 
ments  of  life  w^hich  w^e  usually  view  they  are 

155 


OF    WAR 
AND   PEACE 


REALITY 


NATURAL 

AND 

ARTIFICIAL 


NATURAL 

AND 

ARTIFICIAL 


often  not  equal,  but  in  varying  proportions.  This 
is  because  the  sections  we  take  and  submit  to  the 
lens  are  arbitrary,  and  divorced  from  that  which 
finishes  and  balances. 

If  we  take  a  section  of  a  fly  and  put  it  under  a 
microscope  we  wonderfully  improve  our  vision 
of  the  part,  but  unless  we  correct  that  observa- 
tion by  the  V7ider,  if  less  detailed,  view  by  the 
naked  eye  of  the  entire  insect,  we  shall  have  the 
most  inaccurate  idea  of  its  proportions  and  co- 
ordination of  parts.  And  we  shall  be  utterly 
wrong  if  we  take  the  edges  of  the  microscopic 
field  for  a  natural  limit. 

So  it  is  in  philosophy.  Opposites  balance  and 
justify,  but  not  necessarily  in  a  day's  v/ork,  a 
man's  life,  a  city's  affairs.  It  is  in  the  whole 
cycle  and  progression  of  the  soul  through  a  linked 
chain  of  lives,  from  the  out-go  from  the  Center  to 
the  in-go  to  Nirvana,  that  they  are  in  proportion  ; 
it  is  in  the  rhythm  and  symphony  of  the  universe 
that  they  balance. 

The  natural  is  that  v^^hich  grows,  and  which 
must  be  considered,  to  be  understood,  in  all 
its  fullness  of  grov/th  ;  the  arbitrary  is  that  which 
we  cut  to  suit  ourselves  from  the  natural,  and  we 
must  not  complain  that  that  w^hich  we,  imperfect, 
have  made  is  itself  imperfect. 

156 


Nothing  can  be  perfect  till  completed,  and  to 
complete  anything  takes  everything. 

It  is  in  the  just  recognition  of  opposites  then, 
their  value  and  import,  their  proportionate  pres- 
ence or  absence,  and  in  ideally  supplying  the  miss- 
ing parts  by  spiritual  insight  and  foresight,  that 
the  soul  of  man  finds  its  noblest,  divinest,  happi- 
est functions,  and  foretastes  the  joys  which  are 
not  yet.  This  is  the  building  of  the  Ideal  and  the 
living  of  the  Righteous  Life  ;  this  is  the  true 
Morality  and  Justice  in  theory  and  practice  ;  and 
no  one  can  live  thus  and  not  find  himself  ever 
growing  larger,  kinder,  more  tolerant,  reconciled, 
free,  and  magnanimous.  He  has  the  Overlook, 
and  lives  in  the  Lifted  Land. 

OTHING,  perhaps,  more  vividly 
in  history  illustrates  the  law  of 
opposites,  and  how  extremes  pro- 
duce each  other,  than  the  spiritual 
fruition  of  various  ages  and  times 
in  their  Messiah-men.  Thus 
from  the  Hindoos,  fixed  in  caste,  establishing  the 
relative  inferiority  and  superiority  of  men  as  in 
grooves  of  adamant,  came  Buddha,  indifferent  to 
caste,  with  his  gospel  of  individuality,  equality, 
and  universal  love.    From  the  Greeks,  who  above 

all  men  loved  this  earth-life  and  the  sensuous 

157 


NATURAL 

AND 

ARTIFICIAL 


THE  LAW 
OF  OPPO- 
SITES 

PROVED    IN 
MESSIAH- 
MEN 


THE    LAW 
OF    OPPO- 
SITES 
PROVED    IN 
MESSIAH- 
MEN 


OF    CON- 
SCIENCE 
AND   EVIL 


joy  of  it,  came  Socrates  who  above  all  men  af- 
firmed the  soul.  From  the  narrov</,  clannish, 
grasping,  revengeful  Jews  came  Jesus  the  com- 
munist, the  universal  brother,  the  all-forgiver. 
From  the  idolatrous,  polytheistic  tribes  of  Arabia 
came  Mohammed,  the  idol-breaker,  the  affirmer 
above  all  others  of  a  pure  Monotheism.  From 
the  despotic,  ferocious  Russians  came  Tolstoi', 
the  non-resistant,  and  Krapotkin  who  abdicated 
a  princedom  for  love  of  the  people.  Lastly  from 
the  Yankees,  the  most  calculating,  materialistic, 
business-bound  of  all,  come  the  Transcendental- 
ists,  Emerson,  Thoreau,  Whitman,  men  of  pure 
spirit,  to  w^hom  all  existence  is  a  poem  of  the 
Divine. 

Always  v^^'hen  the  time  grows  rotten  the  Savior 
appears,  and  no  extreme  is  left  without  its  anti- 
dote ;  yea,  it  produces  its  antidote. 

|ONSCIENCE  is  the  voice  of  prog- 
ress, the  impulse  of  spring,  the 
sap  in  the  tree.  It  is  the  main- 
spring of  growth  in  the  human 
soul.  And  the  evil  thing  against 
which  it  utters  is  that  which  is 
against  our  growth  and  progress,  the  thing  we 
have  outgrown,  or  the  thing  given  us  to  strive 
against.      Seldom  is  it  when  two  armies   come 

158 


together  that  each  is  not  inspired  by  a  conscien- 
tious conviction  of  a  just  and  righteous  cause, 
and  that  devout  leaders  on  each  side  lift  not  up 
holy  hands,  before  the  battle,  imploring  confi- 
dently the  Divine  aid.  And  truly  God  is  with 
each,  and  each  does  his  work.  Yet  is  that  prayer 
all  unnecessary,  for  the  true  battle  ^jvas  fought 
from  the  beginning  of  eternity,  and  this  is  only 
the  visible  and  material  explanation  of  it  —  a  mov- 
ing picture  of  the  real  thing. 

For  one  view  of  right  inspires  one  man  to  one 
act  and  another  view  of  right  inspires  his  antago- 
nist to  resist — "Loyalty  to  the  King,"  on  one 
hand,  and  "Liberty  or  Death"  on  the  other  — 
and  so  the  battle  of  the  universe,  with  its  oppo- 
sites  and  contradictions,  goes  bravely  on.  For 
no  more  than  cocks  in  a  main  do  the  antagonists 
work  their  own  w^ills,  or  fight  their  own  fight. 
Truly  they  act,  yet  are  they  automatons ;  truly 
they  choose,  yet  is  their  choice  forechosen. 

And  so  there  is  no  evil  except  as  a  relative, 
mutable  thing  —  a  chameleon  of  change.  Evil  is 
not  absolute,  inhering  in  one  act,  but  according  to 
circumstances  there  or  absent. 

Evil  overturned  reads  tt've^  What  lesson  is 
here  ?  May  this  not  be  a  teaching  that  the  true 
evil  is  where  life  is  reversed,  growth  set  back, 

159 


OF  CON- 
SCIENCE 
AND    EVIL 


OF    CON- 
SCIENCE 
AND    EVIL 


progress  aborted  ?  Truly  when  the  inner  voice 
bids  us  to  rest  we  are  justified  to  take  repose  ; 
there  is  a  time  to  sleep,  a  time  to  loaf,  a  time  for 
contentment,  a  time  for  serene  observation  and 
meditation,  as  well  as  for  labor  and  for  strife ; 
but  when  the  bugle  blows,  then  the  soldier  who 
takes  not  his  place  in  the  ranks  is  a  rebel  and 
a  deserter.  But  the  discipline  is  perfect,  the 
pressure  is  sufficient,  and  whether  he  stands,  or 
lies  dow^n,  strikes  on  or  runs  back,  yet  he  is  fully 
utilized  and  his  rebellion  made  to  serve  as  per- 
fectly as  his  obedience.  But  the  true  virtue  is  to 
be  ardently  convinced  of  right  and  then  strike. 

"  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with 
thy  might !  " 

For  all  the  currents  of  the  universe,  all  the 
stars  in  their  courses,  all  the  tides  of  human  sym- 
pathy are  inevitably  -with  the  man  of  force  and 
conviction,  and  fight  w^e  him  never  so  fiercely, 
nathless  w^e  love  the  bold  and  earnest  enemy. 

The  weakling,  the  coward,  the  despairful,  the 
irresolute,  the  pessimist,  he  is  the  w^orld's  traitor. 
For  weakness  is  the  sin. 


1 60 


T  is  in  my  thought  that  there  are 
two  heredities  —  the  one  of  the 
^Xi/'  RTWll  body  the  other  of  the  soul.  Men 
^~^"^  p^vl  have  thought  much  of  the  first,  but 
about  the  second  have  deemed  only 
that  it  probably  was  inseparable 
from  the  first.  Pretty  clearly  is  it  established 
that  by  breeding  in  certain  well-known  grooves 
physical  peculiarities  of  form,  size,  color,  etc,  can 
be  quite  regularly  and  certainly  transmitted.  But 
character  seems  to  follow^  no  such  lines.  Twins 
may  be  so  much  alike  as  not  to  be  separable  by 
the  eye,  yet  their  mental  traits  may  be  most  dif- 
ferent, though  their  physical  heredity  must  have 
been  the  same.  Animals  reared  from  the  same 
litter  differ  widely  in  temper  and  traits  —  the 
one  gentle,  the  other  fierce  ;  the  first,  perhaps, 
treacherous,  the  second  trustful,  and  so  on. 
Physiognomy  has  always  been  studied  as  an 
index  of  the  soul,  yet  is  it  an  index  unreliable. 
How  frequently  the  beautiful  face  goes  with  a  bad 
heart  !  —  and  Socrates  was  ugly,  and  Demos- 
thenes had  impeded  speech. 

Now  I  suppose,  following  the  Dawn-Thought, 
that  the  soul  has  to  know  all  things  and  receive 
all   experiences,   therefore    does   not   necessarily 


HEREDITY 


follow   the 


systematic   course 


of  the  body   but 


HEREDITY  often  goes  cross-lots,  so  to  speak.  If  this  were 
not  so  the  extermination  of  a  family  would  be  the 
extermination  of  its  souls,  because  the  physical 
heredity  was  terminated.  The  soul  is  freer  than 
the  body,  and  follows  not  its  bounded  course, 
yet  has  imperative  attractions  of  its  ow^n  w^hich 
determine  its  conscious  or  unconscious  choice. 
When  a  child  is  born  the  body  comes  from  the 
parents,  but  the  soul  which  enters  may  have 
previously  been  in  a  body  in  another  land,  of 
another  race,  experiencing  opposite  conditions. 
The  soul  of  the  child  of  an  American  may  have 
been,  last  life,  a  Jew  and  in  the  life  before  an 
Ethiopian.  The  present  tyrant  may  have  been 
a  slave,  and  the  present  saint  may  have  passed 
from  previous  life  via  the  gallows.  Consider 
this  and  it  explains  much.  The  body,  if  it  agrees 
with  its  tenant,  forms  a  beautiful  servant,  but  if 
soul  and  body  do  not  agree,  then  each  modifies 
the  other  in  the  struggle  and  compromise.  The 
form  of  the  body  does  certainly  modify  the  ex- 
pression of  the  soul,  hence  the  truth  of  physiog- 
nomy, but  the  soul,  with  equal  certainty,  moulds, 
in  time,  the  physical  features  to  its  own  pattern. 
Hence  however  much  at  first  the  body  may  belie 
the  soul,  at  last,  if  the  life  be  sufficiently  long,  it 
tells  the  approximate  truth,  and  when  the  soul 

162 


finally  leaves  its  influence  will  be  found  to  have    HEREDITY 
changed  its  dv/elling  for  better  or  worse,  while  its 
ow^n  experiences  received  there,  and  because  of 
it,  have  transformed  it  eternally. 

How^  often  do  w^e  see  in  women  ascetic  souls 
struggling  with  voluptuous  bodies,  or  the  reverse  ; 
and,  in  men,  mighty  ones  w-ho  are  cow^ards,  and 
puny  ones  who  beard  lions.  Honest  faces  deceive 
us,  firm  faces  grow  lax,  and  weak  faces  wax 
.earnest  and  sincere. 

Much  of  personality  is  currently  explained  by 
derivation  from  ancestors,  but  nothing  in  current 
theories  can  tell  me  why  your  great-grandfather, 
unlike  you,  has  reappeared  in  your  son.  But 
possibly  he  has  reappeared  in  fact.  Ancestors 
might  naturally  and  easily  be  attracted  to  reap- 
pear in  their  posteritj'-. 

This  theory,  too,  could  offer  an  explanation  of 
that  wonderful  fact  that  men  of  genius  so  often 
contradict  the  genius  of  their  nation.  Who  could 
have  predicted,  following  usual  theories  of  hered- 
ity, a  Marcus  Aurelius  among  the  Romans,  a 
Jesus  among  the  Jews,  an  Emerson,  a  Thoreau 
in  New  England  ? 

What  strange,  far  birds  of  passage  are  these  ? 

When  a  Buddha  appears,  men  hold  him  such 
a  marvel  they  fable  an  immaculate  conception  ? 

163 


ADUMBRA- 
TIONS 


F  the   Dawn-Thought  is  the  right 
thought  then  are  all  the  religions 
^\\[/      5f^^'    o^  the  world,  and  all  strongly  held 
'^  KxjI     beliefs,  but  adumbrations,  or  misty- 

shapes,  of  truth  —  in  each  is  a 
changeful  core  of  truth  wrapped 
about  and  modified  to  the  eye  by  fogs  and  decep- 
tive outlines  of  mistake,  and  moving  light  and 
shade.  As  we  gro-w  taller,  as  our  eyes  grow 
stronger,  and  our  judgment  improves,  we  shall 
be  less  and  less  deceived,  shall  perceive  the 
center  nearer  and  larger,  but  we  shall  always 
be  somewhat  mistaken,  even  until  Attainment. 
All  this  should  never  be  forgotten  in  our  estimate 
of  any  faith  —  acceptance  and  scepticism  should 
alw^ays  go  hand  in  hand  as  cooperating  friends. 
Therefore  there  is  constant  growth  and  change 
in  religion  as  in  all  else  —  or  rather  in  the  normal 
growth  and  evolution  of  humanity  the  same  reli- 
gion serves  different  men  differently.  To  those 
not  yet  to  it,  it  is  mysterious,  attractive,  or  repel- 
lent ;  to  those  abreast  of  it  it  is  all  truth  ;  but 
those  who  are  past  it  can  criticise  it  wisely,  ac- 
cording to  their  distance,  and  modify  it  to  their 
need,  add  to  it  their  new  truths,  and  finally  out- 
grow it  altogether  and  into  something  appar- 
ently new  yet  feeding  on  the  dead  truths  of  the 

164 


old.     For  continuity  is  never  really  broken  in  any      .  t^tt^^t^^  ^ 

J      r         ,/   ,  .  ,  ,.   .        /      ADUMBRA- 

thing,  and,  after  all,  there  is  only  one  religion  m     fTOTsr*^ 

the  whole  world. 

Apply  these  views  to  the  two  great  vital  and 
growing  religions  of  the  present —  Mohammedan- 
ism and  Christianity  :  To  the  pagans,  among 
whom  it  grows,  Islam  carries  the  great  inspira- 
tional and  unifying  thought  that  God  is  One  and 
there  is  but  one.  In  its  fatalism,  too,  it  gives 
them  the  Reconciliation,  which  is  the  thought 
that  in  some  form  or  other  does  most  to  give 
men  peace.  Add  to  this  the  great  practical  virtue 
of  temperance,  which  Islam  teaches  with  more 
force  than  any  other  creed,  and  which  is  pecu- 
liarly needed  by  the  sensual  savage,  and  we  see 
its  value  as  a  purifier  of  paganism,  and  that  no 
other  religion  excels  it  in  the  strength  and  sub- 
limity of  its  central  truths. 

Logically  the  religion  of  Christ  should  not  be  a 
gospel  at  all,  but  a  sad  tiding  ;  for,  logically,  it  is 
founded  on  the  doctrine  that  men  can  be  utterly 
damned  and  spiritually  die,  and  only  those  Vv/'ho 
believe  rightly  can  be  saved.  But  practically  it 
is  a  religion  of  joy,  simply  because  it  is  human 
nature,  after  all,  to  look  on  the  bright  side  for 
self  and  to  select  that  which  feeds.  Damnation 
is  accepted  as  a  dogma,  yet,  after  all,  the  innate 

165 


ADUMBRA-  courage  and  hope  of  the  healthy  nature  vindicates 
TIONS  itself,  and  it  is  tacitly  accepted  that  "  as  for  me 
and  my  house"  v/e  are  exempt.  That  danger 
ignored  the  rest  is  easy.  And  in  Christianity 
there  are  tvi^'O  grand  central  doctrines  for  which, 
through  all  its  changes,  it  stands  —  Divine  Sym- 
pathy and  Human  Solidarity — God  cares  and  all 
men  are  brothers.  And  this  is  good  news,  indeed. 
And  then,  in  all  ages  and  places,  good  people  are 
better  than  their  creeds,  because  the  human  soul 
grow^s  and  advances  while  the  creed  stands  still ; 
and  thus  Christianity  teaches  and  is  taught,  gives 
and  receives,  advances,  and  is  modified  and 
added  to. 

The  great  doctrines  of  Christianity,  as  of  all 
religions,  are  adumbrations  of  great  truths,  where- 
fore their  hold  on  the  people,  v^ho  seldom  or 
never  hold  them  exactly  as  the  theologians  formu- 
late them,  but,  as  it  were,  centrally,  in  firm  faith 
but  with  dim  insight.  Thus  held  they  are  the 
bread  of  life.  But  as  soon  as  there  is  insistence 
on  details  of  definition  the  bread  becomes  a  stone. 
Thus  of  salvation  by  faith.  Let  us  look  at  it 
broadly  and  centrally.  As  soon  as  a  man  can  lay 
hold  on  the  Great  Life,  in  confident  trust,  he  is 
delivered  at  once  from  fear,  and  the  currents  of 
that  life  fiov/  through  him,  creating  spiritual"  and 

i66 


physical  health.  He  is  reconciled,  happy,  and 
his  happiness  and  peace  are  contagious,  benefit- 
ing all. 

He  is  saved  from  fear,  disease,  and  sin,  not 
altogether,  but  in  exact  proportion  to  his  develop- 
ment, and  of  his  pov/er  to  believe  and  receive,  to 
see  and  hold.  In  other  w^ords,  those  who  believe 
receive  into  themselves  and  their  consciousness 
the  Everlasting  Life, 

Those  v^ho,  in  the  rhythm  of  life,  reach  tempo- 
rarily those  ebbs  of  doubt  and  denial  w^hich  every 
growing  soul  must  fall  into  before  the  next  on- 
w^ard  wave-lift  feel  "  lost,"  "  damned,"  or  con- 
demned. They  have  lost  their  sense  of  unity  and 
of  relation  to  the  Great  Life,  feel  strangely  apart, 
and  that  the  universe  is  against  them.  Hence, 
centrally  and  broadly,  the  doctrine  of  damnation 
by  doubt  is  true.  But  ultimately  every  doubter 
is  saved  by  a  greater  influx  of  life  v/ith  its  accom- 
panying consciousness  or  faith.  His  loneliness 
and  soul-pain  have  made  him  enlarge  himself  to 
receive  more,  and  he  enters  on  a  new  stage  of 
spiritual  life.  Note  that  it  is  not  evil  v/orks 
which  bring  the  feeling  of  pessimism  and  separa- 
tion (of  being  "lost")  but  lack  of  faith  in  and 
assurance  of  life  and  final  good.  Evil  men  are 
usually  believers,  and  therefore  not  despairfully 

167 


ADUMBRA- 
TIONS 


ADUMBRA- 
TIONS 


INFINITY 


unhappy,  but  doubters  are  usually  good  men,  but 
pessimistic.  Therefore  the  truth  of  the  saying 
that  salvation  is  by  faith,  not  works. 

And  so  may  the  central  truths  in  all  doctrines 
be  found  and  show^n. 

jHE  Divine  Infinity  has  been  a  puz- 
zle to  the  doctors,  because  they 
have  made  God  only  a  part.  God, 
they  said,  was  Infinite  Love,  or 
Infinite  Pov^^er,  or  Infinite  Wis- 
dom, or  all  these.  But  infinity  is 
that  which  has  no  limit.  If  power  and  wisdom 
are  different  and  distinct  things  from  love,  then 
God  cannot  be  any  one  of  these  things  in  an  in- 
finite degree,  because  the  moment  love  touched 
the  boundary  of  v/isdom,  or  of  power,  it  would 
become  limited  and  finite.  The  same  difficulty 
in  a  still  greater  degree  attends  the  discovery  of 
opposites.  If  there  be  any  hate  in  the  universe, 
anywhere,  that  hate  necessarily  limJts  the  love  in 
the  universe,  and  prevents  its  being  infinite  ;  and, 
in  the  same  way,  any  w^eakness  neutralizes  in- 
finite power,  and  any  ignorance  destroys  the 
infinity  of  w^isdom. 

Therefore  the  Divine  cannot  be  Infinite  Love, 
or  Power,  or  Wisdom,  because  each  of  these  is 
an  attribute,  a  part,  and  no  part  can  be  infinite. 

1 68 


This  brings  us  to  the  true  Infinity,  reveals  INFINITY 
the  true  doctrine,  God  is  not  an  infinite  part, 
he  is  the  Infinite  All,  because  only  all  can  be 
infinite.  He  includes  love  and  hate,  virtue  and 
sin,  strength  and  weakness,  ignorance  and  knowl- 
edge—  everything.  He  is  One,  the  Only  One, 
the  Infinite. 

Yet,  because  there  is,  after  all,  no  real  hate, 
sin,  weakness,  or  ignorance,  in  all  the  universe, 
all  these  being  but  apparent  or  -working  fictions ; 
and  because  the  Divine  feelings  and  motives  are 
fundamentally  and  necessarily  (because  Deity 
includes  ail  and  cannot  hate  himself)  kind,  health- 
ful, and  life-giving  ;  and  because  there  are  no  real 
divisions  or  separations  between  the  so-called 
attributes  of  Deity,  all  these  being  one,  and  there- 
fore it  makes  no  difference  whether  we  say  love, 
or  power,  or  wisdom,  all  these  being  ultimately 
one  and  the  same  —  it  follows  that  it  is,  after  all, 
in  the  ultimate  or  largest  sense,  perfectly  correct 
to  speak  of  God  as  Infinite  Love,  or  Infinite 
Wisdom,  or  Infinite-anything-else,  because,  ulti- 
mately, in  him  there  are  no  partitions  and  the 
name  makes  no  difference  but  must  apply  to  all. 

And  so,  finally,  there  is  always  a  largest  sense 
in  which  every  illogical  thing  becomes  logical, 
and  every  contradiction  true. 

i6g 


FINER  tJ  ^^jJT^'-dpST  appears,  therefore,  that  life  is  a 
FORCES  3^7  r^Cn  furnace  in  which  everything  is  be- 
V\*/^  §w(i  ^^S  refined.  Starting  in  the  gross- 
■^^  ^■^\/l'i  est  its  action  is  always  toward 
the  finer,  till  a  consummation  or 
"bloom"  has  been  obtained,  and 
then,  falling  back  for  a  space  and  resting,  as  it 
were,  it  goes  on  again  and  farther  than  before  ; 
and  so  on  forever,  till  Nirvana.  Every  atom, 
every  molecule,  mineral,  organism,  —  vegetable, 
animal,  or  human — species,  race,  theory,  belief, 
is  pushing  on  by  means  direct  or  indirect,  appar- 
ently alone  or  manifestly  v/ith  and  by  others, 
helped  by  help  and  helped  by  hate,  toward  more 
beautiful  attainment.  Life  is  a  great  battle,  force 
rules  all,  and  in  every  contest  strength  prevails. 
This  is  because  Force  is  One,  and  the  One  is 
Force,  and  therefore  must  prevail,  for  w^eak- 
ness  is  always  wrong  (really  non-existent)  in  the 
greater  sense,  though  right  in  the  lesser  sense 
because  necessary.  But  as  opposed  to  force 
w^eakness  is  in  the  wrong  and  always  has  to  give 
way.  Yet  as  things  tend  always  to  produce  their 
opposites  so  the  defeated  weak  thing  evolves  a 
new  strength  finer  than  that  which  defeated  it, 
and  becomes,  in  turn,  conqueror.  And  so  the 
game  goes  on  ;  and  v^rith  every  step  in  the  play 

170 


finer  forces  come  into  the  contest,  and  the  players  FINER 
rise  higher,  and  the  Divine  stands  more  revealed.  FORCES 
The  old  forces  remain,  but  the  new  and  finer 
ones  subdue  and  include  them.  There  is  no  go- 
ing back,  when  a  new  force  arrives  it  holds  its 
own  and  grow^s  into  dominion.  It  is  really  not  a 
new  force  (because  Force  is  one)  but  a  newly 
revealed  part  of  the  old  —  a  finer,  more  subtile 
side  perceived  by  any  soul  as  it  grows  in  con- 
sciousness and  attainment.  Therefore  it  is  al- 
ways stronger,  because  it  always  has  the  strength 
and  weight  of  the  more  —  it  is  always  plus.  The 
strong,  the  conquerors,  do  not  find  new  forces 
because  they  are  content  with  that  which  has 
given  them  victory,  but  the  vanquished  seek  them 
and  open  themselves  to  receive  them,  and  so 
discover.  Therefore  there  is  great  profit  in  de- 
feat, and  out  of  ignorance,  mistake,  weakness, 
sickness,  deformity,  come  w^onderful  fruits  for  the 
w^orld's  feast. 

Because  man  was  w^eaker  than  the  beasts 
around  him,  poorer  in  teeth  and  nails,  he  took  to 
his  brains,  and  their  finer  force  gave  him  do- 
minion over  all  fangs  and  pav7S  and  horns.  And 
when  a  w^eak  or  sick  man  contended  w^ith  a 
strong,  w^ell  one,  he  too  fell  back  on  finer  force, 
and  by  wile  or  deception,  or  trap,  or  machine,  or 

171 


FINER      eloquence,  or  argument,  saved  himself  alive,  and 
FORCES      set  aside  or  defeated  the  purpose  of  his  foe. 

And  little  by  little  the  finer  forces  prove  them- 
selves the  greater ;  and  men  see  that  indirection 
is  stronger  than  directness,  attraction  is  stronger 
than  repulsion,  love  than  fear,  kindness  than 
cruelty,  justice  than  lust,  force  than  matter.  It 
will  yet  be  seen  that  woman  is  stronger  than  man, 
and  the  soft  things  shall  prevail  over  the  hard. 

There  is  then  profit  in  defeat,  strength  in  v/eak- 
ness,  health  in  sickness,  virtue  in  sin  ;  but  mainly 
only  to  those  who  do  not  acquiesce  in  them,  but 
■who  resist  them  to  the  attainment  of  their  oppo- 
sites  —  who  never  submit  or  despair. 

And  the  lesson  to  hold  is  that  everything  in  the 
universe  is  not  here  by  accident,  or  alien,  but  is  a 
legitimate  part,  is  in  its  place,  doing  its  work,  has 
indispensable  value,  and  is  to  be  accepted  and  rec- 
onciled to,  even  if  necessarily  and  properly  resisted. 
THE  TRUE  \^^f^yj^''^'<fS^  ^  mystical  symbol  is  and  has  been 
CROSS     ImT    ]r?^ \  ^  ^n    so  universal  and  well   know^n  as 

the  cross.  The  most  ancient  sym- 
bolists used  it,  it  is  ^everywhere 
to-day.  And  why?  Because 
everywhere,  for  all  men,  w^as,  is, 
and  shall  be,  throughout  the  world,  that  great 
mystery  the  Contradiction,   the   Opposition,   the 

172 


Antagonism,  the  crossing  of  good  by  evil,  joy  by 
pain,  health  by  sickness,  virtue  by  vice,  day  by 
night,  heat  by  cold,  birth  by  burial,  life  by  death, 
male  by  female,  the  soft  by  the  hard.  This  is  the 
True  Cross  of  universal  experience,  and  all  men 
mystically  feel  the  force  of  the  symbol.  The 
world's  saviors  are  broken  on  it,  yet  uplifted  by 
it.  On  it  -we  all  are  crucified,  yet  through  it  all 
are  saved. 

The  two  bars  typify  the  two  parts  of  the  Con- 
tradiction, their  position  how  they  mutually  cross 
yet  support  each  other,  their  touch  the  Recon- 
ciliation, their  intersection  the  Center ;  include 
the  four  equal  ends  in  a  circle,  and  you  typify  the 
Inclusive,  the  Perfect,  the  All. 

HE  normal  and  healthy  mind  is 
superior,  alw^ays  above,  judicial. 
It  has  no  prejudices,  either  for  or 
against,  and  is  carried  away  by  no 
irresistible  predilection,  dislike,  or 
despair,  know^ing  perfection  im- 
possible in  the  partial  things  about  it,  it  looks 
confidently  and  without  surprise,  or  overmuch 
condemnation,  for  the  inevitable  and  certain  weak- 
nesses. Yet  this  attitude  is  far  enough  from  bit- 
ter censorious  suspicion  —  is  rather  that  of  the 
kind  physician  ^vho  know^s  the  oftenness  of  dis- 

173 


THE    TRUE 
CROSS 


OF    PESSIM- 
ISM,    THE 
INFIDEL, 
AND   THE 
BELIEVER 


OF    PESSIM- 
ISM,   THE 
INFIDEL, 
AND    THE 
BELIEVER 


ease  and  does  not  expect  to  find  the  perfectly 
well  man.  Yet  the  healthy  mind  has  no  pessim- 
ism, and  you  may  know  it  by  this  sign.  Deep 
do'wn  in  every  sane  and  healthy  soul  is  an  intui- 
tive conviction  and  assurance,  having  very  little 
reference  to  reason  or  external  evidence,  that  at 
last  the  good  and  the  glad  are  strongest  and  will 
prevail.  This  is  Faith,  and  is  the  certain  mark 
of  the  Believer.  The  believer  may  pretend  to  be 
a  cynic,  may  call  himself  atheist,  infidel,  or  what 
not,  but  at  bottom  he  feels  there  is  a  povver  not 
himself  (yet  to  which  he  is  related)  which  makes 
for  righteousness,  justice,  betterment,  and  this 
secret  consciousness  is  his  consolation  and  keeps 
the  springs  of  his  life  sweet. 

Pessimism  is  the  true  infidelity :  and  he  is  the 
Infidel  w^ho  believes  that  at  last  all  the  promises 
of  life  are  a  lie,  that  existence  is  a  cunning  trap, 
baited  by  Supreme  Malice  or  unconscious  fate, 
and  that  deceit,  selfish  sport,  or  blind  death,  lie 
at  the  center  of  the  Mystery. 

For  the  first  man  life  is  ever  a  great  song  full 
of  stirring  words,  but  to  the  second  man  all  is 
mockery,  a  worm  is  in  every  bud,  and  a  drop  of 
gall  at  the  bottom  of  every  cup. 

It  matters  not  about  words.  The  first  man 
may  tell  you  that  he  believes  not  in  God,  but  that 

174 


he  trusts  in  the  universe,  or  life,  or  evolution,  or 
lav\^,  or  any  other  preferred  name  —  never  mind, 
do  not  dispute  v/ith  him,  he  is  right,  it  is  the 
same. 

And  the  second  may  be  gay,  and  hide  his  de- 
spair under  intoxications,  hollow  jests,  soul-sick 
laughter,  but  finally  his  text  is  that  of  Job's  wife, 
"  Curse  God  and  die,"  and  the  goal  of  all  his 
roads  is  suicide.  To  him  life  show^s  an  insanity, 
and  death  a  blank. 

To  such  men  the  Dawn-Thought  comes  as  a 
gospel ;  to  the  man  of  faith  it  is  a  reason,  to  the 
unbeliever  a  hope. 

HROUGHOUT  the  universe  runs 
the  principle  of  sex,  in  every- 
thing, and  to  be  continually  reck- 
oned w^ith.  And  the  practical 
application  of  it  in  human  affairs 
is  that  in  every  relation,  not  alone 
in  building  of  homes  and  building  of  children,  the 
man  and  the  v/oman  should  act  and  react,  plan 
and  place,  consult,  work,  love,  and  suffer  together. 
A  man  should  be  ashamed  to  do  anything  (as  one 
who  had  neglected  to  use  proper  means)  without 
the  advice  and  help  of  a  woman.  Wherever 
either  sex  acts  entirely  alone,  there  is  waste  of 
life  and  no  begetting,  and  w^herever  there  is  par- 

I7S 


OF  PESSIM- 
ISM,    THE 
INFIDEL, 
AND   THE 
BELIEVER 


SEX 


SEX 


MODESTY 


tially  separate  action,  there,  by  so  much,  is  de- 
formed offspring  and  stunted  product.  It  requires 
the  free,  glad  sympathetic  cooperation  of  two, 
a  male  and  a  female,  to  give  birth  and  happy 
growth  to  any  beautiful  child  of  brain  or  body. 
The  sexes  are  natural  helpmeets  and  correlatives 
of  each  other,  and  where  they  are  free  to  follow 
their  natures,  not  controlling  but  assisting  each 
other,  life  is  healthful  and  sw^eet  in  blossom  and 
ripe  in  fruit.  It  is  again  the  doctrine  of  opposites 
and  complements,  of  the  hard  and  the  soft,  of 
that  dualism  working  out  unity  which  expresses 
existence. 

EX  and  religion  are  near  akin,  be- 
cause both  take  hold  on  the  roots 
of  being  and  flow  in  the  currents 
of  life  and  love.  And  in  all  the 
higher  natures  a  religious  feeling 
grows  around  everything  of  sex 
and  love,  a  sense  of  sacredness.  Poetry  and  the 
most  exalted  ideals  spring  up  spontaneously  in 
this  congenial  climate,  and  the  deeper  the  love, 
and  the  more  refined  and  noble  the  character,  the 
surer  do  we  see  the  instinct  appear  to  devote 
the  functions  of  sex  only  to  the  highest  offices,  to 
invest  all  with  a  religious  consecration  and  apart- 
ness from  possible  pollution,  or  cheap  and  com- 

176 


mon,  unreverential  regard.  This  is  peculiarly  MODESTY 
true  of  woman,  and  increases  ever  with  her  spir- 
itual uplift,  and  is  the  certain  gage  of  it.  To  the 
truest  woman  her  sex  is  the  "  holy  of  holies," 
the  temple  of  her  peculiar  religion,  in  w^hich  only 
her  lover  is  her  fellow  worshiper,  and  which 
she  would  protect  from  the  profane  eye  and  hand 
with  her  life.  And  this  is  "modesty,"  and  the 
origin  of  it.  While  a  woman  retains  this  she 
is  at  peace  with  herself,  but  this  lost  she  falls 
into  moral  chaos.  Men,  who  are  always  behind 
w^omen  in  the  evolution  of  love,  may  not  know 
what  has  happened  her,  but  they  know  she  has 
ceased  to  be  "  w^omanly,"  and  no  longer  beckons 
them  upward  or  leads  them  in  lines  of  light.  And 
men,  as  they  advance  in  evolution  (because  evo- 
lution is  toward  the  finer  forces)  become  ever 
more  -woman-like  themselves,  and,  as  they  grow 
gentler,  more  parental,  compassionate,  they  also 
surely  grow  more  modest  and  sensitive  to  the 
finer  instincts  and  motions  of  sex.  As  the  life  is 
so  are  the  ideals  of  sex,  and  all  that  a  man  is  will 
he  tell  in  his  love. 

And  purity  is  the  desire  to  consecrate  sex  only 
to  the  highest  ideals  of  love. 

But  all  this  refers  not  so  much  to  externals  as 
to  internals,  not  so  much  to  finical  physical  con- 
177 


MODESTY  cealment  as  to  that  aura  and  atmosphere  of  native 
and  inviolable  purity  which  surrounds  the  high- 
est souls  like  an  ether  too  rarefied  for  grosser 
lungs  to  breathe. 

The  fact  that  the  location  of  modesty  is  differ- 
ently and,  as  it  were,  arbitrarily  placed  by  differ- 
ent individuals  and  races,  argues  nothing  against 
its  essentiality ;  for  its  essential  sign  and  charac- 
teristic is  the  desire  to  keep  the  best  prized  and 
most  precious  things  in  love  sacredly  reserved 
for  the  ones  most  w^orthy  and  beloved. 

The  instinct  that  sex  is  sacred  has  given  birth 
to  sex-religions,  and  asceticism  is  but  the  other 
pole  and  extreme  of  sex-religion  —  the  desire  to 
keep  sex  pure  become  morbid,  and  leading  finally 
to  the  extravagance  that  all  use,  joy,  satisfaction 
in,  or  discovery  of  sex,  or  confession  of  desire, 
or  even  mention  of  the  matter,  is  vile  and  obscene. 

This  is  disease,  not  purity. 

But,  normally,  sex  is  spiritually  the  fountain, 
physically  the  garden  of  life  ;  the  visible  finger  of 
the  Creator ;  pure  as  the  dearest  flov/ers,  w^or- 
shipful  as  the  most  sacred  things. 

Search  yourself;  if  sex  is  to  you  unbeautiful,  a 
shameful  thing,  you  are  not  pure. 


178 


OVE  is  need  and  the  satisfaction 
of  need,  but  selfish  love  is  never 
satisfactory,  because  the  highest 
satisfactions  of  love  come  only- 
through  the  contradiction  of  sac- 
rifice. The  yearning  of  true  love 
•is  to  give,  and  the  more  it  gives  the  more  self- 
joy  it  feels.  Sacrifice  is  the  yielding  of  a  precious 
thing  that  a  more  precious  thing  may  come,  as  in 
olden  days  men  offered  the  firstlings  of  their 
flocks  to  obtain  favors  from  the  gods.  Enlight- 
ened egoism  must  work  out  as  altruism  and 
again,  because  finally  v/e  are  all  one,  altruism  is 
fundamentally  egoistic. 

Love  between  man  and  woman,  then,  never 
attains  its  deepest  satisfactions  and  contents  till 
it  is  "  for  better,  for  worse,  for  richer,  for  poorer," 
but  there  is  a  perilous  point  here.  Sacrifice  and 
submission  to  the  desires  of  the  loved  one  may 
itself  be  a  selfishness  and  weakness,  bearing  evil 
results  for  all.  Woman,  being  peculiarly  the 
lover,  is  peculiarly  prone  to  sacrifice,  and  her 
weakness  and  her  besetting  sin  lie  here  as  well 
as  her  strength.  Every  virtue  is  potentially  a 
vice,  a  crime  even,  and  the  greater  the  virtue  the 
greater  the  peril  from  its  perversion.  Tempted 
by  her  own  nature  to  sacrifice  all  to  the  man  she 
179 


LOVE,  SAC- 
RIFICE, PA- 
RENTHOOD 


LOVE,  SAC- 
RIFICE, PA- 
RENTHOOD 


loves,  -woman  is  further  pressed  to  do  evil  by 
law,  and  a  one-sided  code,  which  tell  her  that  she 
must  and  should  submit  to  her  husband's  desires. 
But  w^oman  is  above  all  the  mother.  Her  first 
duty,  after  the  keeping  of  her  self-respect,  is  to 
her  child.  And  she  stands  on  the  divine  and 
inner  side  of  life,  beckoning  man  toward  the 
Center,  and  should  not  abdicate  her  spiritual 
leadership.  Motherhood  is  her  most  sacred  func- 
tion ;  she  is  not  only  mother  to  her  child  but  to 
the  whole  human  race.  This  is  the  divine  law  in 
her  which  human  laws  should  not  outrage.  Her 
body  is  her  temple,  she  is  sole  priestess  there,  by 
divine  right,  and  it  is  her  place  to  see  that  no 
profane  touch  approaches.  For  her  own  sake, 
for  her  child's  sake,  for  the  sake  of  the  coming 
generations  whose  doorkeeper  she  is,  she  must 
demand  from  those  who  come  to  her  only  the 
purest  love  and  the  finest  character.  As  for  her 
life  she  must  keep  all  others  aw^ay.  She  must 
demand  the  best  from  her  lover,  always,  and  take 
no  other.  If  she  do  not  this  she  is  false  to  her 
most  sacred  office  and  trust.  The  finest  love 
and  the  finest  manhood,  that  she  may  keep  soul 
and  body  fit  for  motherhood  —  that  her  children 
may  be  beautiful  and  great,  well-born  and  nur- 
tured in  the  Eden-garden  of  a  true  and   loving 

i8o 


home  !  For  her  child's  sake  a  woman  should 
permit  no  man  to  be  its  father  unless  able  to 
pass  her  soul's  most  searching  test ;  for  her 
child's  sake  she  should  instantly  take  it  and  leave 
him  if  his  moral  atmosphere  prove  unwholesome 
for  it.  Her  first  duty  is  to  herself  and  her  child ; 
and  her  first  sacrifices  should  be  to  her  mother- 
hood, not  to  the  man.  And  in  nature,  through 
her  elective  love,  if  free,  she  holds  the  keys  of 
human  character. 

Motherhood  is  w^oman's  peculiar  office,  all  her 
nature  is  builded  about  it,  and  in  proportion  as 
she  is  supreme  and  free  here  the  moral  order  of 
society  is  assured.  To  protect  her  and  cooperate 
with  her  in  building  a  more  beautiful  race  should 
be  man's  proudest  privilege.  To  invade  her  free- 
dom and  dominion  here  is  to  strike  at  the  moral 
life,  to  commit  the  greatest  of  crimes.  Hence 
the  universal  horror  with  which  men  regard  rape, 
as  the  most  dreadful  of  pollutions.  Hence  human 
law,  in  subverting  the  natural  order  by  giving  the 
husband  power  over  the  body  of  the  w^ife,  pre- 
venting her  natural  free  and  sovereign  choice  of 
the  hour  and  the  man,  and  her  right  to  divorce 
herself  and  her  child  from  any  man  the  moment 
he  proves  unv^orthy,  is  guilty  of  the  greatest 
of  organized  crimes,  conspiracy,  usurpation,  and 

i8i 


LOVE,  SAC- 
RIFICE, PA- 
RENTHOOD 


LOVE,  SAC- 
RIFICE, PA- 
RENTHOOD 


HOME 


rape,  perversion  of  social  morality,  poisoning  the 
fountains  of  the  future,  neutralizing  the  greatest 
social  antiseptic,  and  bringing  all  the  weight  and 
powers  of  society  to  compel  one  brave  woman  to 
abdicate  the  sovereignty  of  her  body  and  soul. 

There  is  no  influence  on  earth  so  divine  and 
uplifting  as  the  yearning  of  a  true  man  to  deserve 
the  admiration  and  love  of  a  good  w^oman.  Liber- 
ate this  force,  and  give  it  its  full  scope  and  opera- 
tion by  restoring  to  w^oman  her  power  of  choice 
and  personal  sovereignty,  at  all  times  and  with 
all  men,  and  human  character  will  improve  as 
by  miracle. 

JHE  true  home  is  the  type  of  true 
society.  As  the  home  is,  so  is  the 
community.  We  have  seen  that 
the  natural  law  of  practical  right, 
for  the  individual  and  for  so- 
ciety, is  the  evolution  of  sponta- 
neous unity  through  and  by  the  glad  recognition 
and  admission  of  every  self-hood.  Just  the 
same  must  apply  w^ith  even  intenser  force  in 
the  "  home."  There  is  no  sweeter  word,  for 
the  home  is  the  practical  and  objective  of  that  of 
w^hich  heaven  is  the  subjective.  And  the  unity, 
peace,  joy,  love,  harmony  of  the  ideal  of  home 
are  only  realized  w^here  every  individual  in  it  is 

182 


as  free  as  he  himself  wishes  to  be,  so  far  as  this  HOME 
can  be  without  abridging  a  Hke  freedom  in  the 
others.  This  truth  cannot  be  too  often  repeated. 
There  is  and  can  be  no  real  peace,  love,  unity, 
where  equal  freedom  is  not  first  ideally  vindi- 
cated. As  sure  as  hatred  is  not  love,  so  surely 
is  invasion  the  tap-root  of  hatred. 

The  true  home  is  the  abode  and  paradise  of 
love,  but  that  love  is  not  only  utterly  worthless, 
but  utterly  non-existent,  if  forced.  It  cannot  be 
forced,  hence  the  utter  folly  of  all  legal  bonds. 
For  the  ligatures  of  the  law  are  all  of  force  and 
fear,  and  the  magnetic  currents  of  love  are  all  of 
attraction  and  fitness  —  the  home  is  the  antithesis 
of  force  and  fear.  To  bind  tv/o  people  together 
w^ho  already  love  each  other  is  as  foolish  as  to 
order  hungry  mouths  to  feed ;  to  bind  two  people 
together  w^ho  do  not  love  each  other  is  the  put- 
ting of  innocent  souls  in  hell.  The  home  is  the 
garden  from  -whence  grow  all  the  roots  of  life. 
If  it  is  w^hat  it  should  be  the  children  reared 
there  w^ill  have  learned  by  example  and  observa- 
tion those  lessons  of  freedom  and  love  which  will 
last  them  through  life,  ensuring  them  to  be  polite, 
honest,  considerate,  sane,  in  every  social  relation. 
They  carry  with  them  the  foundations  on  which 
it  is  always  safe  to  socially  build. 

183 


HOME  Here,  in  this  Eden  regained,  the  man  and 
woman  are  naked  before  each  other  in  body  and 
soul ;  free  to  have  all  the  secrets  they  please,  yet 
having  none  because  where  there  is  no  aggression 
and  no  fear  there  is  no  need  to  hide.  There  is  no 
authority,  no  compulsion,  because  each  is  more 
than  w^illing,  eager,  that  the  other  should  be  true 
to  self.  Where  there  is  perfect  trust,  who  can 
conceal !  Where  there  is  perfect  respect,  who 
can  compel  !  Where  there  is  perfect  love,  how 
can  one  prevent  the  other ! 

Ah,  the  sweet  sympathy,  the  proud  admiration, 
the  thrilling  praise,  the  tender  assistance,  the 
instant  defense,  the  undoubted  loyalty,  the  glad 
cooperation,  the  mutual  inspiration,  soul-health, 
peace,  rest,  trust,  security  —  these  are  of  home. 

Communism  does  not  need  to  be  mentioned  in 
the  home  ;  it  would  spoil  all  to  make  a  bargain, 
a  contract  of  it ;  for  communism  between  lovers 
is  as  spontaneous  as  kisses  are,  as  the  clinging  of 
flesh  to  flesh  and  soul  to  soul.  Yet  not  here, 
either,  must  the  contradiction  be  forgotten  or 
overridden.  The  individuality,  so  gladly  ac- 
knowledged, and  upon  the  existence  of  w^hich 
depends  the  attraction,  must  flow  out  and  express 
itself  in  all  surroundings  of  the  individual,  and 
the  blendings  of  communism  must  be  balanced 

184 


by  the  perfect  expression  of  each  self-hood,  and     HOME 
in   individual    possession    and    sovereignty   over 
material  goods. 

The  true  home  expresses  first  each  individual, 
second  the  blending  of  these  in  that  larger,  com- 
posite individual  called  the  Family.  That  this  be 
realized,  each  individual  should  have  a  room,  or 
rooms,  sacredly  private  and  consecrated  to  self, 
in  which  every  thread  and  stick  of  furniture, 
every  picture,  bit  of  bric-a-brac,  line  and  color, 
reveals  the  personality,  celebrates  the  spirit,  and 
encourages  the  law  of  growth  of  the  owner,  there 
royal  in  his  ov/n  realm.  But  in  the  family  rooms 
the  taste,  the  spirit,  the  love  and  unity  of  all 
should  blend  like  a  symphony. 

In  the  true  the  ideal  home  the  only  restraint  is 
on  aggression,  the  father  is  head  because  wisest, 
the  mother  the  heart  because  the  dearest,  the 
children  honor  their  parents  because  they  are 
honorable,  the  children  are  respectful  and  polite 
because  their  parents  treat  them  as  respectfully 
and  politely  as  they  treat  each  other  and  they 
know  no  other  manner. 


185 


THE    NEW 
CHIVALRY 


THE  AT- 

ONE-MENT 

IN 

MARRIAGE 


EFORE  me  rises  the  prophecy  of 
a  new  chivalry,  \A^herein  the  vindi- 
cation and  defense   of  every  wo- 
man's right  to  absolute  freedom  in 
her  person   and  love  w^ill   be   the 
spirit,  instinct,  and  code  of  honor  of 
every  man  claiming  the  proud  name  of  gentleman. 
J^ARRIAGE  has  been  variously  de- 
fined as  cohabitation,  a  promise 
of    exclusiveness,    a    legal    cere- 
mony, a  religious  sacrament ;  but 
all  these  definitions  are  too  crude. 
Even  the  declaration,  "  and  they 
twain  shall  be  one  flesh,"  is  too  crude,  too  ex- 
ternal.    Nor  shall  we  find  more  by  hunting  to  the 
roots  of  the  w^ord.    To  find  out  the  original  mean- 
ing of  a  word  is  to  find  out  only  that  —  what  it 
originally  meant.     Words  evolute  and  grow,   as 
the  souls  grow^  that  use  them,  and  come  to  mean 
much  more  and  differently  than  at  first.     What 
the  Vv^ord  marriage  means  now,  with  the  most 
highly  evoluted  souls,  is  that  beautiful  and  almost 
indescribable  union  in  which  the  two  are  in  such 
sympathy  that  each  actually  feels  the  other  as  a 
part  of  self — a  state  of  liberty  and  unity  so  ideal 
that  each  is  fully  vindicated,  yet  blended  —  a  unit 
in  two,   like  the  universe.      This  is   more  than 

i86 


twain  v/ho  are  one  flesh ;  it  is  one  soul  expressed 
in  two  forms  ;  it  is  tw^o  halves  w^ho  have  found 
each  other  and  by  uniting  make  one.  This  proves 
marriage  a  spiritual  fact. 

It  is  more  than  living  together,  more  than 
fleshly  consummation,  more  than  mutual  parent- 
hood, more  than  legal  or  religious  ceremonies, 
more  than  vows  or  promises.  All  these  are  ac- 
cidents or  incidents,  having  no  essential  relation 
to  true  marriage  which  can  exist  in  its  most 
perfect  spiritual  form  without  them  ;  they  only 
express,  declare,  celebrate,  or  hamper  and  inter- 
fere with  it.  True  marriage  is  at-one-ment,  is 
union,  a  one-ing.  Hence  its  wonderful,  vital  rela- 
tion to  religion  and  life.  By  its  one-ment  of  two 
souls  it  typifies  what  finally  must  come  to  all 
souls  —  their  at-one-ment  with  all  things,  and 
thus  enlargement  to  the  Divine  Inclusion.  And 
the  man  and  the  woman,  thus  united,  form  the 
social  molecule,  of  w^hich,  taken  separately,  they 
are  the  atoms.  Separately  they  are  social  atoms, 
indivisible,  incoherent ;  together  they  are  the 
social  unit,  the  smallest  possible,  yet  most  typi- 
cal social  group  ;  mutual,  equal  freedom  balanced 
in  united  love  —  the  encircled  cross. 

The  man  and  the  woman,  thus  at-oned,  form 
the   true  human,  and   their  typical   relation   fits 

187 


THE   AT- 
ONE-MENT 
IN 
MARRIAGE 


THE   AT- 

ONE-MENT 

IN 

MARRIAGE 


them  to  extend  the  same  freedom  in  sympathy  to 
all  others,  and  thus  build  the  ideal  and  true 
society. 

Love  is  marriage,  incompatibility  is  divorce, 
the  illegitimate  child  is  the  one  begotten  against 
its  mother's  wish.  These  are  natural,  spiritual 
facts,  and  the  artificial,  legal  proclamations  on 
such  matters  are  clumsy  and  violent  usurpations 
and  impertinences,  beneath  the  recognition  of 
free  and  seeing  minds. 

But  this  real  and  true  marriage  of  two  is  so 
rare  and  heavenly  a  vision,  even  yet,  on  the  earth, 
that  it  seems  presumptuous  to  point  further  and 
say  that  some  day  love  may  come  to  so  enlarge 
itself  that  it  may  mean  the  perfect  blending  of  not 
only  two  but  of  more  than  two,  of  many  souls, 
male  and  female,  as  one.  But,  if  the  logic  of  the 
Dawn-Thought  is  true,  nothing  is  more  certain. 
It  is  the  destiny  of  all  to  become  one,  and  to 
become  one  by  a  gradual  growth  and  enlargement 
of  the  present  methods  of  harmony  till  they  in- 
clude all.  The  time  must  come  w^hen  vi^hat  is 
now  sometimes  true  of  two  will  be  true  of  the 
whole  human  race,  which  will  be,  as  it  were, 
married  in  the  perfect  union  of  its  tvs^o  (male  and 
female)  separated  elements  ;  every  man  husband, 
every  woman   wife,   and  every  child   finding  in 

1 88 


every   adult   a    loving,    protective    parent.      For 
marriage  is  completion. 

But  all  this  requires  an  enlargement  and  beauty 
of  character,  a  development  of  unselfishness,  a 
sensitiveness  of  sympathy,  a  universality  of  gen- 
erosity, an  outgrowing  of  jealousy,  a  purity  of 
thought  and  action,  a  refinement,  gentleness,  free- 
dom, and  sweetness  of  life  and  association,  of 
Avhich  w^e  as  yet  have  hardly  the  rudiments,  and 
w^hich  is  now  almost  inconceivable. 

But  in  character  all  that  is  imaginable  is 
attainable. 

And  love  is  not  a  thing  to  be  commanded,  not 
a  duty,  not  something  to  be  forced.  Nothing  is 
more  unfortunate  than  for  any  tw^o  to  try  to  make 
themselves  love  w^here  Nature  says  no.  Love  is 
always  free  and  spontaneous,  and  comes  from 
mutual  fitting  and  fulfilled  conditions.  Love  is 
for  all,  and  to  all  at  last,  but  not  till  the  proper 
season  and  fullness  of  growth. 

When  w^e  arrive  !  — 
^^^JSC^^HVERY  religion  has  its  place  in  the 
RV^/vii\riM^tfl   evolution  of  the  soul,  and  the 
teaching  and  acceptance  of  it  its 
due  effect,  yet  equally  and  often 
more  valuable  are  the  results  of 
skepticism.     After  a  religion  has 
189 


THE    AT- 
ONE-MENT 
IN 
MARRIAGE 


THE    RELI- 
GION   OF 
ATHEISM 


THE  RELI- 
GION OF 
ATHEISM 


been  sufficiently  believed  and  lived  to  yield  all  its 
good  it  begins  to  grow  old,  formal,  lifeless,  to  the 
soul  that  is  through  w^ith  it,  like  the  pupa  case 
which  the  expanding  insect  breaks  and  flies  from. 
This  is  inevitable  and  necessary,  otherwise  the 
old  faith  becomes  an  intolerable  prison,  and  pre- 
vents all  growth  and  on-going  life.  Therefore 
the  time  always  comes,  in  a  progressing  life,  when 
skepticism  and  repulsion  toward  w^hat  has  been 
believed  sets  in,  and  the  marching  soul  steps  on 
and  leaves  its  dead  creed  behind  it.  All  skepti- 
cism, negation,  unbelief,  then,  even  the  most  ex- 
treme, is  a  healthful  and  natural  symptom,  though 
a  painful  one,  and  a  sure  sign  of  an  enlarging, 
growing,  God-going  soul.  Welcome  it,  and  fear 
and  condemn  it  not.  Heretics,  skeptics,  idol- 
breakers,  are  the  pioneers  and  scavengers  of  the 
Living  Church.  Without  them  it  would  grow 
rotten  or  petrify.  Atheists  are  the  closest  and 
dearest  of  God's  unconscious  children  —  blind 
babies,  but  with  lips  on  the  true  breast.  It  is 
because  of  their  growth  toward  him,  their  God- 
becoming,  that  they  are  what  they  are. 

For  that  which  makes  a  man  skeptical  is  al- 
ways this,  that  his  intellect  and  moral  nature 
have  outgrov/n  his  creed.     He  has  become  better 

and  wiser  than  the  thing  he  is  taught  to  believe. 

190 


And   because   he   is   wiser  than    his    Bible,   and    ^^^    RELI- 
larger  than  his  creed,  and  better  than  his  revealed    ^^ON    OF 
God,  he  no  longer  believes  in  any  of  them;  but    ATHEISM 
rejects  them  all,  just  in  proportion  to  his  percep- 
tion of  this. 

For  a  man  may  only  worship  that  which  is 
beyond  and  above,  that  >vhich  leads  him  on. 
The  atheist  is  what  he  is  because  he  must  have 
a  better  God,  a  wiser  Bible,  a  nobler  creed,  a 
purer  faith,  a  grander  inspiration  and  enthusiasm 
than  that  w^hich  contents  the  less  developed  souls 
about  him.  If  he  is  honestly  atheist,  he  is  inva- 
riably a  finer,  nobler,  and  more  trustw^orthy  man 
than  the  believer  whom  he  has  left  and  w^ho  tries 
to  defame  him.  It  is  because  he  demands  a  per- 
fect God,  and  yet  sees  evil  flourishing,  that  he 
comes  to  deny  deity  and  falls  into  utter  negation 
and  pessimism.  But  this  is  always  only  a  tempo- 
rary state.  It  is  but  the  destruction  of  the  old 
temple,  that  a  newer,  larger,  grander  one  may 
build  on  its  site.  Were  it  complete  and  perma- 
nent it  would  be  annihilation,  but  it  never  is. 
The  Divine  ever  lives  and  reveals  himself  to  all 
aspiring  souls.  The  atheist  soul,  by  its  negation 
of  all  about  it,  is  inevitably  throw^n  back  on  itself, 
and  self,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  road  to  God, 

because  there  is  but  one  Self,  the  Center. 

191 


THE    RELI- 
GION   OF 
ATHEISM 


It  is  the  narrow,  petrifying,  dogmatism  which 
insists  upon  any  faith  as  a  finality,  -which  ulti- 
mately makes  atheism  and  passionate  heresy  a 
necessity  to  all  those  who  must  go  on  —  who 
have  the  Life  within.  Where  religion  is  recog- 
nized as  a  growing,  enlarging,  never-finished 
thing,  this  violent  revolt  is  not  necessary  to 
those  who  can  include  more.  For  religion  is 
inclusion. 

Hungering  for  the  highest  good,  yet  finding  it 
not,  the  skeptic  begins  to  form  ideals  of  what  it 
should  be,  and  that  is  the  Inner  Voice,  the  true 
seed  of  a  new  religion  which  shall  carry  Religion 
one  step  further  on.  The  man  himself,  as  we 
know  him,  in  his  one  lifetime,  may  not  come  to 
acknow^ledge  deity  or  religion,  but  that  is  of  no 
consequence  except  to  his  own  happiness  ;  he  is 
doing  the  v^ork,  and  developing  the  new  and 
higher  ideal,  bringing  forward  the  new  and  larger 
explanation  to  comfort  and  inspire,  promoting  his 
own  growth  and  that  of  all  about  him,  even  by 
denial  and  rebellion,  and  that  is  all  important. 

The  darkness  and  pain  and  negativeness  of  un- 
belief and  pessimism  may  be  likened  to  the  night 
with  its  needful  rest  before  a  ne^w  day's  w^ork ; 
to  a  fallow  field  recovering  fertility  ;  to  the  dark 

earth  w^herein   a  new  seed   germinates ;    to   the 

192 


dark  womb   where   a  new  birth  of  a  New  Man 
is  beginning. 

And  it  is  so  with  all  negations,  all  rebellions, 
heresies  —  atheist,  nihilist,  rebel,  socialist,  anar- 
chist, free-lover,  what  you  will.  Wherever  these 
rebels  are  honest,  driven  by  an  inner  necessity  to 
protest,  revolt,  deny,  they  do  so  because  they 
have  a  passionate  love  of  the  better  side  of  the 
thing  they  deny,  because  they  are  superior  to 
the  institution  they  criticise,  and  are  driven  by 
the  inw^orking  Divine  to  liberate  its  spirit  and 
build  for  it  a  larger  and  better  form. 

HEN  a  savage  looks  in  a  mirror 
for  the  first  time  he  thinks  that 
what  he  sees  there  is  another 
man,  but  we  tell  him  he  sees 
only  himself.  The  exact  con- 
verse of  this  expresses  the  Dawn- 
Thought  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  apparent 
individualities  to  the  True  Individual.  We  are, 
each  one  of  us,  as  it  v>;-ere,  but  a  reflection  of  the 
One  Individual,  and  when  we  look  v/ithin  and 
see,  as  we  say,  ourselves,  what  we  really  see  is 
the  greater  and  true  Self,  The  Individual  (called 
by  some  God,  by  others  the  Universe,  Nature, 
or  by  many  other  names),  but  diminished,  modi- 
fied,  and    clouded    by  more   or  less   of  mistake, 

193 


THE    RELI- 
GION   OF 
ATHEISM 


OF   TRUE 
INDIVIDU- 
ALITY 


OF   TRUE 
INDIVIDU- 
ALITY 


according  to  the  form  and  development  of  our 
visual  powers.  I  am  but  a  reflection,  but  when 
I  saw  my  original  I  thought  I  saw  myself,  and, 
after  all,  that  was  true  ;  only  my  mistake  was  in 
believing  that  I  w^as  apart,  that  selves  were 
separate  and  many. 
There  is  but  One. 


194 


an  a^tevwor^* 


wish  to  tell  the  simple  truth  about  A.N  AFTER- 
this  book.  It  is  not  a  theory  built  VVORD 
up  by  painful  and  long-continued 
intellectual  piece-'work  and  inge- 
nuity. It  came  to  me,  from  first 
to  last,  as  v/e  say  by  inspiration  ; 
first  the  main  Thought,  then  the  corollaries. 
The  Thought  came  unsought,  like  a  ray  of  un- 
expected light,  and  the  after  vistas  came  one 
at  a  time,  as  the  Thought  revolved  and  shed 
its  ray  here  and  there  upon  them.  In  many 
cases  I  felt  impelled  to  sit  down  and  write, 
and  as  I  wrote  the  subject  unfolded  itself  auto- 
matically, as  one  might  say,  before  me.  At 
other  times  it  was  born  into  my  mind  in  the 
same  way,  while  walking  or  working.  But  in  all 
cases  I  felt  surprised  and  uplifted,  as  by  read- 
ing great,  new,  and  true  words  by  some  other 
mind. 

But  do  not  mistake  me.  There  was  no  trance, 
or  any  consciousness  of  spirit  or  person.  I  was 
never  more   normal   or  sanely  serene.      It  was 

merely   that   a    mood    of    clearer   consciousness 

195 


AN  AFTER-  seemed  to  come  upon  me,  illuminating  and 
WORD  uplifting  me  to  greater  distance  and  depth  of 
vision,  and  the  confused  became  plain.  That 
was  all. 

I  do  not  say  these  words  of  the  Dawn-Thought 
are  true.  Prove  them  for  yourself,  and  if  they 
do  not  seem  to  you  true  do  not  believe  them. 

Nor  do  I  say  they  are  final.  I  regard  them  but 
as  a  step  in  a  series.  Judged  by  their  own  stand- 
ards they  are  only  true  centrally,  and  their  out- 
lines must  change  with  every  change  in  the  point 
of  view.  Look  w^ith  your  own  eyes  ;  listen  to 
your  own  soul ! 

For  myself,  I  am  still  agnostic.  I  do  not  know, 
nor  profess  to.  But  whereas  before  I  was  agnos- 
tic and  did  not  believe,  now  I  am  agnostic  and 
believe.  The  Daw^n-Thought  is  to  me  a  working 
theory  of  truth,  and  seems  truer  to  me  continu- 
ally. It  makes  all  life  seem  w^hole  and  healthy 
before  me. 

But  I  urge  no  one.  If  it  is  for  you  it  will  seem 
true  to  you  in  the  ripe  time. 

Doubtless  many  would  have  been  better  pleased 

had  I  grouped  all  related  sections  under  one  head, 

but  usually  I  have  not  done  this,  but  have  -written 

dow^n  the  various  applications  and  corollaries  of 

the  main  Thought  as  they  came  to  me,  even  if 

196 


in   fragments,   feeling   that  what  was   thus   lost     AN   AFTER- 
in  logical  coherence  would   be  more  than  made     WORD 
up  to  the   reader  by  permitting  him  to  see  the 
order   of    their   spontaneous    procession    in    my 
mind. 

It  is  pleasanter  to  watch  a  running  stream,  I 
think,  than  a  building  house. 


Zbc  £nO. 


197 


OTHER  WORKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


WIND-HARP    SONGS»»»«,  Dedicated  to  the  Free  Spirit. 

Poems  of  life,  love,  nature,  liberty,  and  death.  A  charming  gift -hook  for  the  emancipated. 
Passionate  and  philosophical.     Daintily  bound  in  yellow  linen,  green,  and  gold.    Price,  $1.00. 

"  Mr.  Lloyd's  book  is  dedicated  to  the  'free  spirit,'  of  whose  nature  he  partakes  largely.  Emerson 
seems  to  have  had  no  little  influence  upon  him.  These  songs  of  life,  love,  nature,  and  liberty  were,  he  says, 
composed  not  for  the  pubHc,  but  for  his  own  pleasure  —  'on  the  plains,  in  the  forest,  in  the  wake  of  the  plow,  on 
horseback,  on  the  crowded  street,  by  the  bedside  of  death,  in  the  silence  of  midnight,  and  when  the  face  of  the 
God  of  Morning  blushed  through  the  golden  tresses  of  Dawn." 

"There  is  much  poetry  of  a  wild,  free  kind,  in  Mr.  Lloyd's  work.  In  the  opening  piece,  '  The  Wind- 
Harp  Song,'  for  instance,  one  is  delighted  at  this  touch,  the  forest  trees  being  spoken  of; 

'  Old,  old  things  they  remember. 
Of  the  burnt-out  years. 
Which,  pastward. 
Like  smoke-puffs,  dim,  are  drifting.' 


Better,  however,  is  this : 


'  The  winds. 
Whistling, 
Singing, 

From  far  away  winging, 
Tell  their  tales  of  Thence  and  Thither, 
And  Yonder  Lands, 
Over  the  Sun-fall  Hills, 
The  Sun-rise  Sea.'"  — Louisville  Courier  Journal. 


THE  RED  HEART  IN  A  WHITE  WORLD 


A  Suggestive  Manual  of  Free  Society, 
Price,  10  Cents. 


SONGS  OF  THE  UNBLIND  CUPID 

Are  a  few  poems,  by  J.  WM.  LLOYD,  selected  and  daintily  arranged  in  booklet  form  by  his  friend, 
ALEX  E.  WIGHT,  of  Wellesley  Hills,  Mass. 

Imprinted  from  kelmscott  type,  on  deckle-edged  hand-made  paper,  with  initial  letters,  ornaments,  and 
borders  in  red,  and  an  initial  letter  and  sketch  upon  the  opening  page,  hand-painted  in  water-colors,  it  is  an 
edition  de  hixe.      Covers,  brown  with  choice  of  silver  or  gold  lettering.     Edition  limited  to  650  copies. 

Price  per  Copy,  30  Cents. 


For  Sale  by  J.  WM.  LLOYD,  WESTFIELD,  NEW  JERSEY. 


cj  -  ::>  T  -  /  -7<J^O 


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FOR  SALE  BY 
Purdy  Publishing  Co., 

McVicker's  Theatre  81dg„  78-84  Madison  St. 

CHICAGO,    ILL. 


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